"Oa 


GEORGE  W.  BAIN. 


Wit,  Humor,  Reason,  Rhetoric, 

Prose,  Poetry  and  Story 

woven  into 


Eight  Popular  Lectures. 


George  W.  Bain. 


Eleventh  Thousand. 


PUBLISHED    BY 

THE  PENTECOSTAL  PUBLISHING   COMPANY. 
LOUISVILLE.     KY. 


CALIF.  LIBRARY,  LOS  ANGELES 


COPYRIGHTED    1915 

BY 

GEO.  W.  BAIN, 
LEXINGTON,   KY. 


.Anna 

So  far  as  tfyls  life  Is  concerned,  *3 
can  express  no  better  wlsl)  for  an? 
youna,  man  wfyo  reads  t^is  book, 
tban  tljat  l)e  ma^  be  wed&e&  to  a  wife 
as  loyal,  loving  and  t>etpful  to  fylm 
as  mine  l>as  been  to  me. 


2126111 


INTRODUCTION. 


In  offering  this  book  to  the  public  no 
claim  is  made  to  literary  merit  or  origi- 
nality of  thought.  It  is  published  with  the 
same  purpose  its  contents  were  spoken 
from  the  platform,  namely,  to  do  good. 

With  the  testimony  of  many,  that  hear- 
ing these  lectures  helped  to  shape  their 
lives,  came  the  thought  that  reading  them 
might  help  others  when  the  tongue  that 
spoke  them  is  silent. 

As  a  public  speaker  the  author  admits, 
that  how  to  get  a  grip  on  his  hearers  out- 
weighed the  grammar  of  language;  that 
the  ring  of  sincerity  and  truth  in  present- 
ing a  proposition  appealed  to  him  more 
than  relation  of  pronoun  or  preposition; 
besides  in  the  "high  school  of  hard 
knocks"  from  which  he  graduated  artis- 
tic taste  in  literature  was  not  taught. 

If  it  is  true  that  "tongue  is  more  potent 
than  pen,"  then  the  mysterious  power  of 
personality  and  delivery  will  be  missed  in 
the  reading,  yet  it  is  hoped  the  simplicity 


INTRODUCTION. 

of  the  setting  of  anecdote  and  argument, 
incident  and  experience,  facts  and  figures, 
story,  poetry  and  appeal  will  suffice  to 
make  this  volume  attractive  and  helpful  to 
those  who  read  it,  and  thus  the  lives  of 
many  may  be  made  brighter  and  better  by 
the  life  work  of  the  author. 

GEORGE  W.  BAIN. 


POPULAR  LECTURES. 

INDEX. 
LECTURE  PAGE 

I.  Among  The  Masses,  or  Traits  of 

Character 9 

II.  A  Searchlight  of  the  Twentieth 

Century 59 

III.  Our  Country,    Our    Homes  and 

Our  Duty 101 

IV.  The  New  Woman  and  The  Old 

Man 137 

V.  The  Safe  Side  of  Life  for  Young 

Men 187 

VI.  Platform  Experiences 233 

VII.  The    Defeat    of    The    Nation's 

Dragon    273 

VIII.  If  I  Could  Live  Life  Over. .      .  .307 


AMONG  THE  MASSES,  OR  TRAITS  OF 
CHARACTER. 

Whatever  criticism  I  choose  to  make  on 
human  character,  I  hope  to  soften  the  crit- 
icism with  the  "milk  of  human  kindness/' 
As  rude  rough  rocks  on  mountain  peaks 
wear  button-hole  bouquets  so  there  are  in- 
tervening traits  in  the  rudest  human  char- 
acter, which,  if  the  clouds  could  only  part, 
would  show  out  in  redeeming  beauty. 

To  begin  with,  I  believe  prejudice  to  be 
one  of  the  most  unreasonable  traits  in 
character.  It  is  said:  "One  of  the  most 
difficult  things  in  science  is  to  invent  a 
lense  that  will  not  distort  the  object  it  re- 
flects; the  least  deviation  in  the  lines  of 
the  mirror  will  destroy  the  beauty  of  a 
star."  How  unreliable  then  must  be  the 
distorting  lense  of  human  prejudice. 

I  had  a  bit  of  experience  during  the 
Civil  War  which  gave  .ne  something  of 
that  whole-heartedness  necessary  to  the 

9 


10  POPULAR  LECTURES. 

service  of  my  kind.  In  the  twilight  of  a 
summer  evening,  making  a  sharp  curve  in 
a  road,  about  a  dozen  men  confronted  me. 
They  were  dressed  in  blue,  a  color  I  was 
not  very  partial  to  at  that  time.  I  had 
read  that  "he  that  fights  and  runs  away 
may  live  to  fight  another  day."  It  occurr- 
ed to  me  that  he  who  would  run  without 
fighting  might  have  a  still  better  chance, 
but  the  click  of  gun  locks  and  an  order  to 
surrender  changed  my  mind  to  "safety 
first"  and  I  was  a  prisoner  of  the  blue- 
coated  cavalry. 

The  commanding  officer  who  had  me  in 
charge  (during  my  visit)  was  a  Kentucky 
Colonel.  He  afterward  became  a  major- 
general.  I  looked  at  him  during  the  re- 
mainder of  the  war  from  the  narrow 
standpoint  of  prejudice  and  cherished  re- 
venge in  my  heart  for  his  having  exposed 
me  to  the  flying  bullets  of  the  Confederate 
pickets,  a  peril  he  was  not  responsible  for 
and  of  which  he  knew  nothing  until  I  in- 
formed him  in  after  years. 

A  few  years  after  the  war  our  barks 
met  upon  the  same  wave  of  life's  ocean. 
We  became  engaged  in  the  same  work  of 
reform,  I  as  an  advocate  of  temperance, 
he  as  candidate  for  the  presidency  of  the 


AMONG  THE  MASSES.  11 

United  States  on  the  prohibition  ticket. 
From  the  warmth  of  friendship,  my  prej- 
udice melted  like  mist  before  the  morning 
sun  and  I  found  in  General  Green  Clay 
Smith  a  combination  of  the  noblest  traits 
in  human  character. 

Whoever  would  graduate  in  the  highest 
franchise  of  being,  and  realize  the  royalty 
that  comes  of  partnership  with  sover- 
eignty, must  have  respectfulness  of  bear- 
ing and  feeling  toward  those  from  whom 
they  differ.  We  are  greatly  creatures  of 
education  and  environment  anyway,  and 
until  we  can  unlock  the  alphabet  of  a  life 
and  sum  up  the  mingling,  blending,  recip- 
rocal forces  that  have  been  playing  upon 
that  life,  we  have  no  more  right  to  abuse 
persons  for  honest  convictions  than  we 
have  to  blame  them  for  their  parentage. 

You  do  not  know  the  forces  that  have 
given  direction  to  the  lives  of  others ;  if  so, 
you  might  know  why  one  is  a  member  of 
this  or  that  church,  this  or  that  political 
party,  why  one  lives  north,  another  south, 
one  on  the  land,  another  on  the  sea. 

Some  of  you  may  differ  with  me,  but  I 
believe  if  General  Grant  had  been  born 
in  the  South,  reared  and  educated  in  the 
South,  his  father  had  owned  a  cotton  plan- 


12  POPULAR  LECTURES. 

tation  and  many  slaves,  General  Grant 
would  have  been  a  Confederate  General  in 
the  Civil  War;  while  Robert  E.  Lee  if 
born,  reared  and  educated  in  New  Eng- 
land would  have  been  a  Union  General.  If 
my  opinion  is  correct,  if  all  you  northern 
people  had  lived  down  south,  and  we 
southern  people  had  lived  north,  we  would 
have  gotten  the  better  of  the  conflict  in- 
stead of  you. 

If  yonder  oak,  that  came  from  the  finest 
acorn  and  promised  to  be  the  monarch  of 
the  forest,  was  dwarfed  by  simply  a  drop 
of  dew ;  if  yonder  rolling  river,  bearing  its 
commerce  to  sea,  was  turned  seaward,  in- 
stead of  lakeward,  by  simply  a  pebble 
thrown  in  the  fountain-head;  why  not 
have  consideration  for  those  whose  cir- 
cumstances and  early  training  set  in  mo- 
tion convictions  differing  from  ours.  God 
did  not  intend  all  the  trees  to  be  oaks,  or 
that  all  the  rivers  should  run  in  one  di- 
rection, but  He  did  intend  all  to  make  up 
at  last  His  one  great  purpose. 

Thomas  F.  Marshall  in  an  address 
many  years  ago,  to  illustrate  the  differ- 
ences between  people  of  different  sections, 
said:  "If  you  call  a  Mississippian  a  liar, 
he  will  challenge  you  to  a  duel ;  call  a  Ken- 


AMONG  THE  MASSES.  13 

tuckian  a  liar,  he  will  stab  you  with  a 
bowie-knife  or  shoot  you  down;  call  an 
Indianian  a  liar,  he  will  say,  'You're  an- 
other;' call  a  New  Englander  a  liar,  he 
will  say,  'I  bet  you  a  dollar  you  can't  prove 
it.' " 

Mr.  Marshall  intended  his  compliment 
for  the  Mississippian  and  Kentuckian,  but 
really  his  compliment  was  to  the  New 
Englander.  If  a  man  calls  you  a  liar,  and 
you  are  not  a  liar,  the  manliest  thing  to 
do  is  to  say,  "I  challenge  you,  sir,  not  on 
to  a  field  of  dishonor,  where  the  better 
aimed  bullet  will  tell  who's  a  murderer, 
but  I  challenge  you  out  into  the  sunlight  of 
God's  truth  where  I'll  prove  myself  a  man 
and  you  a  slanderer." 

I  use  this  to  show  it  is  not  just  to  look 
at  character  or  questions  from  the  narrow 
standpoint  of  prejudice. 

Then  again,  we  should  not  judge  a  per- 
son by  one  trait.  There  are  persons  for 
whom  you  may  do  fifty  favors,  yet  make 
one  mistake  and  they  will  never  forgive 
you.  George  Dewey  went  to  the  Philip- 
pine Islands,  remained  in  the  harbor  for 
months,  never  made  a  mistake  and  return- 
ed to  this  country  the  naval  hero  of  the 
world;  and  never  were  so  many  babies, 


14  POPULAR  LECTURES. 

horses  and  dogs  named  for  one  man  in  the 
same  length  of  time.  But  one  morning 
the  papers  came  out  with  the  statement 
that  he  had  deeded  to  his  wife  a  piece  of 
property  some  friends  had  presented  to 
him,  and  within  three  days  after,  when 
his  picture  was  thrown  on  a  canvas  in  an 
opera  house  in  Washington  City  it  was 
hissed  from  the  audience,  and  when  later 
on  he  dared  to  allow  his  name  used  as  a 
candidate  for  the  presidency  of  the  United 
States,  we  were  ready  to  smash  the  hero 
at  once.  But  we  must  remember  there  are 
very  few  men  able  to  withstand  the 
world's  praises.  Indeed  there  never  was 
but  one  man  who  could  be  successfully 
lionized  and  that  man  was  Daniel. 

Captain  Smith  of  the  Titanic  was  held 
responsible  by  public  opinion  for  the  sink- 
ing of  the  great  ship  and  was  harshly 
criticised  by  the  press.  His  forty  years  of 
faithful,  careful  service  on  the  sea  was 
erased  by  the  one  mistake.  It  was  a  tre- 
mendous one,  but  let  it  be  said  to  his  credit 
that  experts  had  declared  that  a  ship  with 
fifteen  air-tight  compartments  could  not 
sink,  that  if  cut  into  halves  both  ends 
would  ride  the  sea.  The  bulk-head  was 
made  to  withstand  any  contact,  and  Cap- 


AMONG  THE  MASSES.  15 

tain  Smith  never  dreamt  of  danger  from 
icebergs.  But  when  he  saw  his  idol  shat- 
tered, he  did  all  a  brave  seaman  could  do 
to  save  human  lives.  When  the  last  life- 
boat was  launched  he  came  upon  a  little 
child  who  was  lost  from  its  parents.  He 
seized  a  life-belt,  buckled  it  about  his  waist 
and  taking  the  child  in  his  arms,  jumped 
into  the  icy  ocean.  Holding  the  child 
above  the  water  with  one  hanct,  he  used 
the  other  as  an  oar,  and  reaching  a  boat 
he  placed  the  little  one  in  the  arms  of  a 
woman.  Then  returning  to  his  sinking 
ship,  Jie  threw  off  the  life-belt  and  went 
down  to  his  death.  Who  knows  but  in  the 
great  reckoning  day,  his  reward  will  bt 
"inasmuch  as  ye  did  it  unto  that  little  one 
on  the  sea,  ye  did  it  unto  me." 

The  great  Joseph  Cook  had  a  reputation 
that  caused  many  to  look  upon  him  as  one 
who  was  all  brains  and  no  heart.  Before 
meeting  Mr.  Cook  I  was  very  much  pre- 
judiced against  him  because  of  what  I  had 
heard.  I  lectured  for  a  teachers'  institute 
at  New  Wilmington,  Pennsylvania,  whan 
the  great  preacher  was  to  follow  me  the 
next  evening.  As  I  was  leaving  the  coun- 
ty superintendent  said  to  me :  "When  you 
reach  the  main  line  Joseph  Cook  will  get 


16  POPULAR  LECTURES. 

off  the  train  which  you  are  to  take.  I 
wish  you  would  speak  to  him  and  give  him 
the  name  of  the  hotel  where  I  have  re- 
served a  room  for  him."  When  I  reached 
the  junction,  and  the  great  savage  looking 
lecturer  stepped  from  the  train,  I  said  to 
myself:  "You  can  go  to  any  hotel  you 
please,  I'll  tell  you  nothing." 

Some  months  later  I  lectured  in  Cooper 
Union  Hall  in  New  York  City.  Just  about 
time  to  begin  the  lecture  Joseph  Cook  en- 
tered the  door  and  took  a  seat  just  inside. 
When  I  had  talked  about  ten  minutes,  he 
arose  and  passed  out.  I  thought  he  was 
not  pleased  and  the  incident  did  not  lessen 
my  unfavorable  estimate  of  the  great 
thinker. 

Some  three  years  later  Mr.  Cook  was 
on  our  chautauqua  program  at  Lexington, 
Kentucky.  Doctor  W.  L.  Davidson,  sup- 
erintendent of  the  assembly,  requested  me 
to  call  at  the  hotel  and  inform  our  distin- 
guished visitor  of  his  hour  and  see  to  his 
reaching  the  chautauqua  grounds.  With 
reluctance  I  went  to  the  hotel  and  sent  my 
card  to  his  room.  He  ordered  me  to  be 
shown  up  to  the  room  at  once.  Approach- 
ing the  door  I  found  it  open  and  Mr.  Cook 
stood  facing  me.  My  impression  is  that 


AMONG  THE  MASSES.  17 

politeness  was  sacrificed  in  my  haste  to 
explain  that  I  was  sent  to  inform  him  as 
to  the  hour  of  his  lecture  and  to  offer  to 
call  for  him  in  time  to  escort  him  to  the 
grounds. 

Extending  his  hand  he  said:  "Come  in 
and  let  me  make  my  best  bow  to  you  for 
the  service  you  have  rendered  the  tem- 
perance cause.  I  heard  you  once  for  about 
ten  minutes  in  Cooper  Union,  when  I  had 
an  engagement  and  had  to  leave.  I  see 
you  are  on  the  program  tomorrow  and  I 
shall  be  there." 

After  his  first  lecture,  returning  to  the 
hotel  I  said :  "Mr.  Cook,  if  I  can  be  of  any 
service  to  you  while  you  are  in  our  city, 
please  feel  at  liberty  to  command  me  at 
any  time." 

He  replied :  "I  order  you  at  once.  I  am 
anxious  to  see  the  home  of  Henry  Clay 
and  the  monument  erected  to  his  mem- 
ory." 

Next  morning-  we  went  to  Ashland  and 
then  to  the  cemetery.  After  visiting  the 
Clay  monument,  we  were  passing  near 
where  my  daughter  had  been  buried  on-y 
a  few  months  before.  When  I  had 
his  attention  to  the  sacred  spot,  Mr. 
said:  "I  read  Miss  Willard's  accouni 


18  POPULAR  LECTURES. 

her  death,  and  the  beautiful  tribute  paid 
her  in  the  Union  Signal.  Please  stop  a 
moment." 

He  left  the  carriage  and  going  to  the 
grave,  took  off  his  hat  and  stood  with  un- 
covered head  for  a  few  moments.  Then 
taking  his  seat  beside  me  in  the  carriage, 
he  laid  his  hand  on  mine  and  said :  "Bless- 
ed are  the  dead  that  die  in  the  Lord." 

With  tears  rolling  down  my  cheeks  I 
said  to  myself :  "Under  the  great  brain  of 
Joseph  Cook  beats  a  tender  heart."  Not 
to  know  him  was  to  misjudge  him,  while 
the  close  touch  of  friendship  revealed  one 
of  God's  noblemen. 

Unity  in  variety  is  the  order  of  nature. 
Out  of  what  seems  to  us  a  medley  of  con- 
tradictions come  amendments  and  recon- 
structions that  illustrate  the  benevolent 
guardianship  of  God  in  working  out  the 
problem  of  creation.  Out  of  the  most  dis- 
cordant elements  God  can  bring  the  most 
harmonious  results.  Out  of  the  bitterness 
and  bloodshed  of  our  Civil  War  has  come 
a  more  harmonious,  united,  happy  and 
prosperous  people. 

It  was  said  of  General  Grant :  "He's  an 
artist  in  human  slaughter.  He  cares  noth- 
ing for  the  loss  of  men,  so  he  wins  the  bat- 


AMONG  THE  MASSES.  19 

tie."  But,  General  Grant  believed  the 
harder  the  battle  the  sooner  it  would  be 
over.  When  the  end  came  he  gave  back 
the  sword  of  Lee,  and  said  to  the  worn- 
out  Confederate  soldiers:  "Take  your 
horses  with  you,  you'll  need  them  on  your 
farms.  Go  back  to  your  homes  and  peace 
go  with  you."  That  manly  strength  of 
character  that  enables  a  man  to  face  shot 
and  shell  on  the  battlefield,  is  not  any 
more  sublime  than  the  manly  weakness  of 
heart  which  "weeps  with  those  who  weep." 
While  we  should  not  judge  one  by  a  sin- 
gle trait  in  character  we  must  not  over- 
look the  importance  of  little  traits.  In 
this  age  of  great  movements,  great 
schemes  and  great  combinations,  our 
young  people  are  disposed  to  ignore  little 
things.  A  little  thing  in  this  great  big 
age  is  too  insignificant.  Yet,  we  are  told 
it  was  the  cackling  of  a  goose  that  saved 
Rome ;  the  cry  of  a  babe  in  the  bull-rushes 
gave  a  law-giver  to  the  Jews ;  the  kick  of 
a  cow  caused  the  great  Chicago  fire;  the 
omission  of  a  comma  in  preparing  a  bill 
that  passed  Congress  cost  this  republic  a 
half  million  dollars ;  while  the  ignoring  of 
a  comma  in  reading  a  church  notice  cost  a 
minister  quite  a  bit  of  embarrassment. 


20  POPULAR  LECTURES. 

Among  his  announcements  was  one  which 
ran  thus:  "A  husband  going  to  sea,  his 
wife  desires  the  prayers  of  this  church." 
The  preacher  read:  "A  husband  going 
to  see  his  wife,  desires  the  prayers  of  this 
church." 

Little  things  are  suggestive  of  great 
things.  We  read  that  a  ship-worm,  work- 
ing its  way  through  a  dry  stick  of  wood, 
suggested  to  Brunell  a  plan  by  which  the 
Thames  river  could  be  tunneled.  The 
twitching  of  a  frog's  flesh  as  it  touched  a 
certain  kind  of  metal  led  Galvani  to  in- 
vent the  electric  battery.  The  swinging 
of  a  spider's  web  across  a  garden  walk  led 
to  the  invention  of  the  suspension  bridge. 
The  oscillation  of  a  lamp  in  the  temple 
of  Pisa  led  Galileo  to  invent  the  measure- 
ment of  time  by  a  pendulum.  A  butter- 
fly's wing  suggested  the  combination  of 
colors.  So  little  things  are  suggestive  of 
great  things  in  character. 

"Boy  wanted"  was  the  sign  at  the  en- 
trance to  a  store.  A  boy  took  the  sign 
down  and  with  it  in  his  hand  entered  the 
store. 

"What  are  you  doing  with  that  sign?" 
asked  the  proprietor. 


AMONG  THE  MASSES.  21 

The  boy  replied:  "Well,  I'm  here,  so  I 
brought  in  the  sign." 

That  boy  was  given  the  place.  Atten- 
tion to  small  things  has  made  many  a  suc- 
cessful man,  while  a  little  temper,  a  little 
indifference,  a  little  cigarette,  a  little  drink 
or  some  other  little  thing  has  been  the 
undoing  of  many  a  young  man. 

What  are  these  little  traits  in  human 
character?  They  are  matches  struck  in 
the  dark.  Do  you  know  what  that  means, 
a  match  struck  in  the  dark?  If  not,  get 
up  some  night  when  it's  pitch  dark  in  the 
room,  run  your  face  up  against  a  half 
open  door,  knock  the  pitcher  off  the  table 
and  spill  the  cold  water  on  your  bare  feet, 
sit  down  on  a  chair  that's  not  there,  and 
you'll  realize  what  it  means  to  strike  a 
match.  If  I  were  to  go  into  a  parlor  of 
one  of  your  finest  homes  at  midnight  with 
all  the  lights  out,  I  would  see  nothing,  but 
let  me  strike  a  match  and  beautifully 
decorated  walls,  fine  paintings,  and  furni- 
ture will  meet  and  greet  my  vision. 

You  cannot  be  very  long  in  the  com- 
pany of  anyone  until  a  match  will  be 
struck.  Of  one  you  will  say,  "that's  good ; 
I'm  glad  to  find  such  a  trait  in  that  per- 
son," but  directly  another  match  will  flare 


22  POPULAR  LECTURES. 

up  and  you  will  find  another  trait  as  dis- 
appointing as  the  other  was  commenda- 
ble, and  you  are  at  a  loss  to  know  what 
"manner  of  man"  you  are  with. 

It's  a  wonder  to  me  when  so  many  char- 
acters are  so  difficult  to  solve  that  many 
young  people  rush  headlong  into  matri- 
mony without  striking  a  match,  except  the 
match  they  strike  at  the  marriage  altar. 
A  girl  sees  a  young  man  today ;  he's  hand- 
some, talks  well,  and  she  falls  in  love 
with  him,  dreams  about  him  tonight,  sighs 
about  him  tomorrow  and  thinks  she'll 
surely  die  if  he  doesn't  ask  her  to  marry 
him.  Yet  she  knows  nothing  about  his 
parentage  or  his  character.  No  wonder 
we  have  so  many  unhappy  marriages,  so 
many  homes  like  the  one  where  a  stran- 
ger knocked  at  the  front  door  and  receiv- 
ing no  response  went  around  to  the  rear 
where  he  found  a  very  small  husband  and 
a  very  large  wife  in  a  fight,  with  the  wife 
getting  the  better  of  the  battle. 

The  stranger  said:  "Hello!  who  runs 
this  house?" 

"That's  what  we  are  trying  to  settle 
now,"  shouted  the  little  husband. 

My  young  friends,  I  will  admit  love  is  a 
kind  of  spontaneous,  impulsive,  natural 


AMONG  THE  MASSES.  23 

affinity,  something  after  the  order  of  mole- 
cular attraction  or  chemical  affinity,  but 
while  by  the  natural  law  of  love,  a  young 
woman  may  see  in  the  object  of  her  af- 
fection her  ideal  of  perfection  in  human- 
ity, she  owes  volitional  conformity  to  a 
higher  law  than  natural  affinity.  She 
owes  to  herself,  to  posterity  and  to  her 
country  a  careful  study  of  the  character 
of  the  young  man  to  whom  she  should  link 
her  life  and  love. 

I  believe  two  dark  clouds  hanging  upon 
the  horizon  of  this  republic  to  be  the  reck- 
lessness with  which  life  is  linked  with  life 
at  the  marriage  altar,  and  the  reckless- 
ness with  which  we  elect  men  to  offices  of 
public  trust.  While  we  have  many  public 
men,  schooled  in  the  science  of  govern- 
ment, whom  the  spoils  of  office  cannot  cor- 
rupt, we  have  an  army  of  demagogues 
who  rely  upon  saloon  politics  for  promo- 
tion, and  on  all  moral  questions  reason 
with  their  stomachs  instead  of  their 
brains.  This  is  especially  true  in  the  gov- 
ernment of  our  large  cities. 

Sam  Jones,  lecturing  in  a  city  noted  for 
its  corrupt  government  said:  "Take  the 
political  gang  you  have  running  this  city, 
put  them  in  a  cage,  then  let  the  devil  pass 


24  POPULAR  LECTURES. 

along  and  look  in  and  he  would  say, 
'That  beats  anything  I  have  in  my  show.'  " 

We  don't  seem  to  realize  that  every  pub- 
lic man  is  a  teacher,  every  home  is  a 
school,  and  the  education  received  outside 
the  schoolroom  is  often  more  effective 
than  the  education  inside.  All  the  forces 
and  elements  of  the  organism  of  society 
are  teachers  and  all  life  is  learning.  The 
birth  of  an  infant  into  this  world  is  its 
matriculation  into  a  university,  where  it 
graduates  in  successive  degrees.  And 
do  you  know  in  this  great  school  of 
human  life,  where  I  come  with  you  to 
study  the  traits  of  our  kind,  that  we  never 
reach  a  grade  that  we  are  not  influenced 
by  what  touches  us  ?  Here  I  am  past  fifty 
years  of  age  (and  then  "some"),  yet  I  am 
constantly  being  influenced  by  what  touch- 
es me. 

Start  a  new  song  with  a  popular  air 
and  it  will  spread  throughout  the  whole 
country.  Boys  will  whistle  it  and  girls 
will  sing  it.  A  number  of  years  ago,  when 
at  the  station  ready  to  leave  home  for  New 
England,  a  lad  near  me  began  to  whistle 
and  then  to  sing  a  new  song.  It  was  a 
catchy  tune  and  took  hold  of  me.  On  the 
train  I  found  myself  trying  to  hum  that 


AMONG  THE  MASSES.  25 

tune,  then  I  tried  to  whistle  it,  and  failing 
in  both  attempts  I  finally  gave  it  up.  Two 
days  after  I  left  the  train  up  in  a  New 
Hampshire  town  and  took  a  street  car  for 
the  hotel.  A  blizzard  was  on,  but  there 
stood  the  motorman,  muffled  to  his  ears, 
whistling  the  same  tune  I  had  heard  down 
in  Kentucky,  "There'll  be  a  hot  time  in  the 
old  town  tonight." 

When  the  telephone  made  its  appear- 
ance a  good  Christian  man  had  one  in- 
stalled in  his  store  and  during  the  morn- 
ing hours  of  the  first  day  he  called  up  afl 
his  friends  who  had  phones,  and  "Hello! 
Hello !"  took  hold  of  him.  He  went  home 
to  lunch  and  being  a  little  late  he  hur- 
ried into  his  chair  at  the  table.  With  the 
telephone  still  on  his  mind,  he  bowed  his 
head  to  return  thanks  and  said:  "Hello." 
He  was  a  good  Christian  man,  but  the  tele- 
phone had  taken  hold  of  him. 

The  very  tone  of  the  voice  has  a  tenden- 
cy to  influence  and  control  character.  I 
wonder  so  many  parents  train  their  voices 
as  they  do.  They  have  a  kind  of  snap  to 
the  tone  which  they  evidently  think  makes 
the  children  and  the  servants  "get  a  move" 
on  them.  Perhaps  it  does,  but  at  the  same 
time  it  falls  upon  a'  family  like  frost  upon 


26  POPULAR  LECTURES. 

a  field  of  flowers.  You  pay  three  dollars 
to  have  your  piano  tuned,  yet  you  train 
your  voice  to  sound  harsh  and  hard. 

How  the  tone  of  the  voice  controls  was 
illustrated  in  my  own  home  several  years 
ago.  I  went  home  in  the  early  spring  and 
found  some  one  had  been  among  my  bees 
and  had  left  the  lids  of  the  hives  lifted  at 
the  time  the  bees  were  making  brood.  Go- 
ing to  the  house  I  said  to  my  wife: 

"Where  is  Charlie?"  He  was  the  col- 
ored man  in  charge  of  the  barn  and  gar- 
den. 

Mrs.  Bain  replied:   "I  suppose  he  is 

about  the  barn ;    he  doesn't    stay  in    the 

house."    I    knew  that,    but  somehow  we 

iidams  will  go  to  our  Eves  with  anything 

that  goes  wrong. 

"What's  the  trouble?"  my  wife  asked. 

I  told  her  about  the  exposure  of  the 
bees,  (about  the  effect  of  which  I  knew 
very  little)  and  said: 

"I  want  Charlie  to  'keep  out  of  that 
apiary.  He'll  kill  every  bee  I  have." 

Mrs.  Bain  in  a  very  gentle  manner  said : 
"I  did  that  myself.  That's  the  way  father 
used  to  do.  I  was  afraid  your  bees  might 
starve  during  the  long  cold  spell,  so  I 
made  some  syrup  and  placed  it  in  the  up- 


AMONG  THE  MASSES.  27 

per  compartments.  I  lifted  the  lids  so 
that  the  light  would  attract  the  bees  up 
to  the  syrup.  I'm  very  sorry  I  did  it,  but 
I  thought  it  would  please  you." 

I  said :  "Well,  I  believe  you  did  the  right 
thing,  my  dear,  and  I  am  very  much 
obliged  to  you." 

If  my  wife  had  said  in  a  harsh  tone :  "I 
did  that,  sir.  What  are  you  going  to  do 
about  it?"  then  I  would  have  said  some- 
thing. 

A  little  bit  of  anger  let  loose  in  a  field 
of  human  nature  is  as  destructible  to  no- 
ble impulses  and  generous  feelings  as  a 
cyclone  is  to  a  town.  I  was  in  an  Iowa 
cyclone  some  years  ago  and  I  noticed  when 
it  was  approaching  the  people  didn't  run 
out  of  their  homes  and  throw  stones  at  it. 
They  ran  for  the  storm  cellars.  When  you 
see  a  bit  of  anger  coming  toward  you  from 
brother,  sister,  husband,  wife  or  friend, 
don't  throw  a  dictionary  of  aggravating 
words  at  it;  get  out  of  the  way  and  it 
will  quiet  down  like  the  troubled  waters 
of  Galilee  when  "Peace  be  still"  fell  upon 
them. 

When  we  realize  how  sensitive  char- 
acter is  to  the  touch  of  influences,  and 
how  uncertain  the  character  of  the  influ- 


28  POPULAR  LECTURES. 

ence  that  may  touch  us,  how  very  care- 
ful we  should  be  as  parents  as  to  what 
shall  touch  us,  how  we  shall  touch  others, 
who  may  be  fed  by  our  fulness,  starved 
by  our  emptiness,  uplifted  by  our  right- 
eousness or  tainted  by  our  sins. 

Sometimes  a  boy  is  sent  to  school  with 
the  idea  that  the  influence  of  the  teacher 
will  mold  the  character  of  the  boy,  when 
the  magnetic  touch  by  which  the  faculties 
of  the  boy  are  sprung  doesn't  come  from 
the  teacher,  but  from  some  boy  on  the 
playground  and  perhaps  not  the  best  boy. 
Some  boys  are  as  potent  on  the  play- 
ground as  a  major-general  on  a  battle- 
field. Some  persons  are  like  loadstones, 
they  draw,  others  are  like  loads  of  stone, 
they  have  to  be  drawn. 

I  have  known  down  South  in  the  days 
of  slavery,  coal  black  queens  of  th<:  do- 
mestic circle.  The  cows  would  come  to  the 
cupping  as  if  it  were  a  spiritual  devotion. 
Maiden  mistresses  would  tell  them  their 
love  stories,  when  they  wouldn't  tell  their 
own  mothers.  I  am  a  southern  man,  born 
and  reared  mid  slavery,  and  I  pay  this 
tribute  to  the  black  "mammies"  of  the 
South  before  the  war.  Down  there  in  that 
hale,  hearty  colored  motherhood  was  laid 


AMONG  THE  MASSES.  29 

the  foundation  of  future  health  and 
strength  for  many  a  white  baby,  when  oth- 
erwise its  mother  would  have  had  to  see  it 
die.  Frail,  delicate  mothers,  who  because 
of  slavery  had  not  done  sufficient  work  to 
develop  physical  womanhood,  were  not 
able  to  nurse  their  own  infants  and  gave 
them  to  the  care  of  vigorous,  healthy  col- 
ored mothers,  who  took  them  to  their 
bosoms  and  nursed  them  into  strength. 
But  for  that  supplemental  supply  of  vigor, 
but  for  that  sympathetic  partnership  in 
motherhood,  much  of  the  most  potent 
manhood  of  the  South  would  never  have 
been  known. 

You  who  lived  in  the  North  before  the 
war,  and  you  who  .are  younger  and  have 
read  about  the  auction  block,  the  slave 
driver  and  the  cottonfield  cannot  under- 
stand the  attachment  between  one  of  these 
colored  mothers  and  the  white  boy  or  girl 
she  nursed.  I  know  whereof  I  speak,  for 
I  revere  the  memory  of  my  old  black 
mammy. 

There  are  verses,  written  by  whom  I  do 
not  know,  the  words  of  which  I  cannot  re- 
call except  a  line  here  and  there,  hence  I 
take  the  liberty  to  supply  the  missing  lines 
and  revise  the  verses  to  express  my  feel- 


30  POPULAR  LECTURES. 

ings  for  the  slave  mammy  of    my  child- 
hood. 

"She  was  only  a  dear  old  darkey, 

In  a  cabin  far  away, 
Down  in  the  sunny  Southland, 

Where  sunbeams  dance  and  play. 
Yet  oft  in  dreams  I  hear  her  crooning, 

Crooning  soft  and  low: 
'Sleep  on,  baby  boy, 

The  sleep  will  make  you  grow/ 

"Oft  when  tired  of  fighting 

In  a  world  so  full  of  wrong; 
When  wearied  and  worried 

With  the  tumult  and  the  throng, 
I  seek  again  the  cabin, 

Where  dwelt  a  heart  of  gold 
And  in  dreams  she  loves  and  pets  me, 

As  she  did  in  days  of  old. 

"Oh,  my  dear  old  colored  mammy, 

In  the  cabin  far  away, 
Since  you  rocked  me  in  the  cradle 

Seems  forever  and  a  day. 
Yet  in  dreams  I  hear  you  crooning 

Above  my  cradle  nest; 
'Sleep  on,  baby  boy, 

Mammy  watches  while  you  rest/  " 


AMONG  THE  MASSES.  31 

A  white  baby,  whose  mother  was  ill 
for  months,  was  given  to  one  of  these  col- 
ored mothers  to  nurse.  After  the  war  the 
white  family  moved  west.  As  their  child 
grew  up  the  father  and  mother  often  told 
her  about  Aunt  Hannah,  how  she  loved 
her,  petted  her,  cooked  for  her,  and  drove 
away  her  own  pickaninnies  to  let  "mam- 
my's baby"  sleep. 

The  girl,  when  she  had  grown  to  wo- 
manhood, heard  that  Aunt  Hannah  was 
still  living  and  she  longed  to  see  her  de- 
voted old  colored  mammy.  Her  parents 
had  the  same  desire,  and  with  other  at- 
tachments for  the  old  southern  home,  they 
went  back  to  Georgia  on  a  visit  and  to  the 
village  where  the  old  woman  lived.  She 
was  sent  for  and  the  old  black  mammy 
and  the  beautiful  young  girl  faced  each 
other.  The  young  lady  was  disappointed. 
She  expected  to  see  a  nice,  comely  old  wo- 
man, but  there  she  stood,  crippled  with 
rheumatism,  gray  headed,  wrinkled,  and 
poorly  clad.  The  old  woman  was  sur- 
prised, for  there  before  her  stood  a  beau- 
tiful young  woman,  with  rosy  cheeks, 
blue  eyes,  auburn  locks  and  queenly  form. 
The  father  and  mother  stood  near,  with 
tears  rolling  down  their  cheeks  as  memory 


32  POPULAR  LECTURES. 

came  surging  up  like  successive  waves 
from  out  a  past  hallowed  to  them,  for  they 
could  see  in  that  old  woman  the  health 
and  strength  of  their  child. 

The  old  woman  broke  the  silence,  say- 
ing: "Is  dat  my  chile?  Is  dat  de  chile  I 
loved  and  laid  wake  wif  so  many  nights 
and  cooked  so  many  sweet  things  for? 
Why,  bless  yo*  heart,  honey;  dese  old 
hands  ust  to  take  yo'  and  hug  yo'  to  dis 
bosom,  but  yo's  too  nice  now  for  dese  old 
hands  to  eber  touch  agin." 

The  young  girl  said:  "'No,  I'm  not, 
Aunt  Hannah.  You  shall  take  me  in  your 
arms  as  when  I  was  a  little  child,"  and 
she  gave  a  bound  into  the  old  woman's 
arms. 

That  does  not  mean  social  equality,  but 
it  does  mean  gratitude  neither  condition 
nor  color  can  ever  bound.  If  the  reciproci- 
ties of  that  old  woman  and  that  beautiful 
girl  were  such  as  to  weave  enrichments 
into  both  hearts,  why  should  not  all  peo- 
ples, and  all  individuals,  see  in  all  others 
but  a  multiplication  of  the  one  each  of  us 
is,  and  that  each  is  enhanced  or  diminish- 
ed in  value  according  to  the  concentrated 
worth  of  the  whole?  If  man  would  stand 
in  his  lot  of  conformity  to  man,  as  that  old 


AMONG  THE  MASSES.  33 

colored  woman  stood  in  her  lot,  it  would 
lift  this  world  to  that  height  from  which 
we  could  see  the  one  interest,  one  recipro- 
cal, interdependent,  together-woven,  God- 
allied  and  God-saved  humanity. 

But  in  this  we  fail.  Several  men,  one 
of  them  an  Irishman,  were  standing  on  a 
street  corner  when  a  negro  passed.  The 
Irishman  said:  "Faith,  and  if  I  had  been 
makin'  humanity  for  a  world,  I  would 
niver  have  made  a  nager."  I  suppose  in 
return  the  negro  would  not  have  made  the 
Irishman,  nor  would  the  white  man  have 
made  the  Indian  or  Chinaman,  but  God 
made  them  all  and  in  proportion  as  we 
have  the  philanthropic  comprehensiveness 
to  accept  them  all,  and  benevolently  try  to 
serve  them  in  their  places,  do  we  honor 
the  place  assigned  us  in  the  world's  crea- 
tion. It  is  not  for  us  to  know  why  God 
made  this  or  that;  He  made  everything 
for  a  purpose. 

A  father  took  his  boy  to  an  animal 
show.  The  lad  had  never  seen  a  monkey 
and  as  they  played  their  pranks  about  the 
cage  he  said:  "Father,  did  God  make 
monkeys?" 

When  the  father  replied :  "Yes,"  the  boy 


34  POPULAR  LECTURES. 

said :  "Well,  don't  you  guess  God  laughed 
when  he  made  the  first  monkey  ?" 

I  don't  know  about  that,  but  if  God 
made  the  monkey  for  a  joke  it  was  cer- 
tainly a  success.  If  God  had  made  the 
monkey  for  no  other  purpose  than  to 
create  laughter  it  wouldn't  have  been  a 
mistake.  The  lachrymal  glands  were 
placed  in  us  for  sorrow  to  play  upon ;  we 
are  commanded  to  "weep  with  those  who 
weep."  In  antithesis  to  this  the  risable 
nerves  were  placed  in  us  for  mirthful 
music,  and  I  pity  the  one  who  has  broken 
the  keys  and  cannot  laugh. 

I  believe  we  owe  the  Irishman  a  vote  of 
thanks  for  the  ringing  laughs  he  has  sent 
around  the  world.  An  Irishman  said  to  a 
rich  English  land-owner: 

"Me  Lord,  I  think  the  world  is  very  un- 
aqually  divided;  it  should  be  portioned 
out  and  each  one  given  an  aqual  share 
with  ivery  other  one?" 

The  Englishman  replied :  "Well,  Pat,  if 
we  were  to  divide  today,  in  ten  years  I 
would  have  ten  thousand  pounds  and  you 
wouldn't  have  a  shilling." 

"Then  we  would  divide  again,"  said  the 
Irishman. 

On  an  electric  car  going  out  of  New 


AMONG  THE  MASSES.  35 

York  City,  a  man,  who  occupied  a  seat 
next  to  the  aisle,  had  a  pet  monkey  in  a 
cage  on  the  seat  with  him,  next  to  the 
window.  An  Irishman  boarded  the  car 
and  seeing  all  the  seats  taken  he  remained 
standing,  holding  on  to  a  strap,  when  sud- 
denly he  spied  the  monkey  in  the  cage. 
He  immediately  addressed  the  man  who 
had  the  monkey: 

"Sir,  is  that  gintleman  in  the  cage  pay- 
ing his  fare?  If  not,  I'd  like  to  have  the 
sate." 

The  owner  of  the  monkey  lifted  the 
cage  to  his  lap  and  moved  over,  giving  the 
Irishman  a  seat. 

"What's  the  nationality  of  that  gintle- 
man, anyway?"  asked  Pat. 

By  this  time  the  other  man  was  very 
much  out  of  humor  and  said:  "He's  half 
ape  and  half  Irish." 

"Faith,  then  he's  related  to  both  of  us," 
replied  the  witty  son  of  Erin,  and  there 
were  two  monkeys  on  that  car. 

I'll  admit  this  trait  of  humor  comes 
in  sometimes  when  it  is  quite  embarrass- 
ing, as  it  was  to  Sam  Jones  upon  one  oc- 
casion, when  in  the  midst  of  a  sermon  be- 
fore a  large  audience,  he  said : 

"All  you  who  want  to  go  to  heaven, 


36  POPULAR  LECTURES. 

stand  up ;  I'd  like  to  take  a  look  at  you." 

The  audience  arose  in  great  numbers. 
When  seated  again  Mr.  Jones  said :  "Now 
all  you  who  want  to  go  to  the  devil,  stand 
and  let's  have  a  look  at  you." 

All  was  silent  for  a  moment  and  then  a 
tall,  lank,  lean  fellow  from  the  backwoods 
arose  and  said :  "Well,  parson,  I  don't  care 
anything  special  about  seeing  the  old  chap, 
but  I  never  desert  a  friend  in  trouble,  spe- 
cially a  minister,  so  I  guess  I'll  have  to 
stand  with  you." 

Dr.  Frank  Gunsaulus  told  me  of  a  time 
when  he  had  to  laugh  under  embarrassing 
circumstances.  He  was  called  upon  to 
preach  the  funeral  of  a  man  who  had  died 
from  the  effects  of  drink.  His  friends 
had  made  a  box  for  the  corpse  and  had 
placed  in  the  top  a  ten  by  twelve  window 
glass  to  go  over  the  face,  but  when  the 
time  came  to  put  the  top  on  the  box,  being 
double-sighted  from  drink,  they  reversed 
the  top  and  had  the  glass  at  the  foot  of 
the  coffin  instead  of  the  head. 

The  preacher  took  his  place,  as  he  sup- 
posed, at  the  head  of  the  deceased,  when 
looking  down  his  eyes  fell  upon  a  pair  of 
feet.  With  great  effort  he  kept  his  face 
straight  and  conducted  the  service.  At 


AMONG  THE  MASSES.  37 

the  close  he  invited  the  friends  to  view  the 
remains.  One  stimulated  friend  walked 
up  to  the  coffin,  shook  his  head  and  turn- 
ing to  another  said :  "Don't  look  at  him, 
Jim.  He's  changing  very  fast  and  you 
won't  know  him." 

The  great  preacher  is  to  be  excused  if 
he  did  laugh  at  that  funeral. 

It's  good  to  laugh,  and  yet,  while  I  pay 
tribute  to  the  trait  of  humor,  I  would  have 
the  undergirding  trait  of  all  traits  of  char- 
acter, the  trait  of  principle.  Though  you 
may  use  policy  now  and  then,  never  use 
a  policy  you  must  get  off  the  heaven-bound 
express  train  of  principle  to  use. 

I  don't  like  that  word  policy.  There  is 
another  and  better  name  for  the  trait  I 
would  present  just  here,  and  that  is  tact. 
It  means  the  doing  of  a  right  thing  at  the 
right  time  and  in  the  right  place.  Some 
young  men  win  first  honors  in  college  and 
fail  in  the  business  of  life  for  want  of 
tact.  Here  is  where  the  Yankee  excels. 
The  Southerner  is  penial,  generous  and 
has  many  traits  of  character  to  be  admir* 
ed,  but  he  must  doff  his  hat  to  Yankee 
character  for  the  development  of  tact. 

Sam  Jones,  who  rarely  ever  failed  to  get 
the  best  of  whoever  tried  repartee  with 


38  POPULAR  LECTURES. 

him,  met  more  than  his  match  when  he 
ran  up  against  Yankee  tact.  He  was  rais- 
ing money  to  pay  off  the  debt  on  a  church. 

A  liberal  member  said:  "Mr.  Jones, 
I  have  given  about  all  I  can  afford  to  give, 
but  if  you  will  get  one  dollar  from  that 
old  man  on  the  end  of  the  back  bench  of 
the  'amen  corner/  I'll  give  you  ten  dollars 
more." 

"Has  he  any  money,  and  is  he  a  member 
of  the  church?" 

"Yes,"  was  the  answer  to  both  ques- 
tions. 

The  great  evangelist  said :  "Well,  that's 
easy,"  and  started  for  the  dollar. 

Approaching  the  old  man  he  said: 
"Brother,  I'm  collecting  money  for  the 
Lord.  You  owe  him  a  dollar.  I'm  told 
you  are  an  honest  man  and  always  pay 
your  debts,  so  hand  over  that  dollar." 

"How  old  are  you,  sir?"  asked  the  old 
man. 

When  Sam  gave  his  age  at  about  forty, 
the  old  brother  said:  "I'm  nearly  double 
your  age,  sir,  and  will  very  likely  see  the 
Lord  before  you  do,  so  I'll  just  give  him 
the  dollar  myself." 

I  lectured  in  New  England  a  few  years 


AMONG  THE  MASSES.  39 

ago  when  before  me  sat  a  Yankee  with  his 
two  sons.  He  sat  between  them  and  when 
I  made  a  point  which  he  approved,  he 
would  nudge  the  boys.  He  seemed  to  be 
driving  my  advice  in  with  his  elbows.  At 
the  close  of  the  lecture  I  took  his  hand  and 
said :  "I  see  you  have  your  boys  with  you." 

He  replied:  "Yes,  I  always  take  the 
two  boys  with  me  when  I  attend  i  lecture. 
I  presume  when  a  speaker  has  prepared 
himself  he  is  going  to  get  about  the  best 
things  out  of  his  subject,  and  will  put 
them  in  a  way  to  take  hold  and  benefit 
young  men.  If  I  were  going  to  get  the 
same  information  out  of  books  1  might 
have  to  spend  a  dollar  or  two,  when  I  only 
paid  fifteen  cents  each  for  their)  to  hear 
your  lecture." 

This  trait  of  tact,  however,  is  moving 
south,  and  even  the  colored  race  is  getting 
hold  of  it.  An  old  negro  who  was  born  on 
the  plantation  where  he  lived  when  set 
free,  remained  after  the  war  in  his  cabin 
and  worked  for  the  son  of  his  oki  master. 
In  his  old  age  his  memory  began  to  fail 
and  he  would  neglect  to  do  things  he  was 
told  to  do.  The  young  man.  was  patient 
with  the  old  negro  for  quite  a  while  but 
finally  said  to  him : 


40  POPULAR  LECTURES. 

"Uncle  Dan,  you  must  do  better  or  you 
and  I  will  have  to  separate." 

The  old  servant  said :  "Mars  Jim,  I  does 
the  best  I  can.  I  is  mighty  sorry  I  forgits 
things  and  I'se  gwine  to  try  to  do  better." 

But  he  grew  worse  and  one  evening 
when  he  failed  to  do  a  very  important 
chore,  the  young  man  said:  "I  told  you 
what  would  happen  if  you  did  not  do  bet- 
ter and  the  time  has  come  when  you  and 
I  separate." 

Uncle  Dan  replied:  "I'se  mighty  sorry, 
Marse  Jim.  I  was  here  when  you  was 
born,  and  when  you  growed  big  enuf  I  ust 
to  take  you  on  de  mule  out  to  de  field  wif 
me,  and  I  members  how  you  ust  to  take  de 
lines  and  dribe  de  ole  mule.  Den  when 
de  war  broke  out  and  ole  Master  jined  de 
army,  I  stayed  here  and  took  care  ob  ole 
Missus  and  you  chilluns.  I  shore  is  migh- 
ty sorry  we's  got  to  part,  but  if  you  says 
so  den  its  got  to  be,  but  look  here,  Mars 
Jim,  if  we's  got  to  part,  whar's  you  count- 
ing on  moving  to?" 

By  this  time  tact  had  done  its  work,  ag- 
gravation had  melted  into  forgiveness  and 
the  young  man  said:  "I'm  not  going  to 
move  anywhere,  Uncle  Dan,  nor  shall  you. 
We'll  both  stay  here  on  the  old  plantation 


AMONG  THE  MASSES.  41 

together."  That  was  certainly  tact  on  the 
old  man's  part. 

A  young  negro,  who  craved  a  ride  on  a 
railroad  train  but  had  no  money,  crept  un- 
der the  baggage  car  and  fixed  himself  on 
the  truck.  The  train  started  and  when  at 
full  speed  the  engine  struck  a  mule  and 
tore  the  animal  to  pieces.  Part  of  the 
mangled  remains  was  carried  into  the  run- 
ning gear  of  the  baggage  car.  The  engi- 
neer stopped  the  train  and  commenced 
pulling  out  pieces  of  mule  here  and  there 
until  he  reached  the  baggage  car,  when, 
looking  under  for  more  of  the  mule,  he 
saw  the  white  eyes  of  the  negro. 

"Come  out,  you  imp,  what  are  you  doing 
under  there?"  said  the  engineer. 

Back  came  the  tactful  reply:  "Boss,  I 
wus  de  fellow  what  wus  ridin'  dat  mule." 

The  engineer  said :  "Well,  I  guess  you've 
paid  your  fare;  climb  into  the  cab  and 
help  me  run  this  train." 

I  commend  to  you  the  cultivation  of 
tact,  but  don't  let  it  lead  you  into  the 
meanest  trait  of  character — selfishness. 
To  say, 

"Of  all  my  father's  family  I  love  myself 
the  best, 


42  POPULAR  LECTURES. 

If  Providence  takes  care  of  me,  who  cares 
what  takes  the  rest?" 

In  the  days  when  there  was  a  commu- 
nity hearse  in  a  country  neighborhood,  and 
carpenters  made  the  coffins,  a  young  man, 
who  was  ashamed  of  the  old  worn-out 
hearse,  went  about  soliciting  money  to 
purchase  a  new  one.  Presenting  the  pur- 
pose to  an  old  man  of  means,  he  received 
from  this  selfish  citizen  the  reply  : 

"I  won't  give  you  a  dollar.  I  helped  to 
buy  the  old  hearse  twenty  years  ago,  and 
neither  I  nor  my  family  have  ever  had 
any  benefit  from  it." 

Against  this  trait  of  selfishness  I  place 
the  most  beautiful  of  all  traits — sympathy, 
I  would  rather  have  the  record  of  Clara 
Barton  in  the  great  reckoning  day  than 
that  of  any  statesman  whose  portrait 
hangs  in  a  hall  of  fame. 

During  our  Civil  War  she  went  from 
battlefield  to  battlefield,  and  was  just  as 
kind  to  the  boy  in  gray  as  she  was  to  the 
boy  in  blue. 

After  the  Civil  War  Queen  Victoria  de- 
sired to  communicate  with  Clara  Barton 
regarding  the  same  mission  of  mercy  for 


AMONG  THE  MASSES.  43 

the  German  army,  where  the  Queen's 
daughter  was  then  engaged.  But  Clara 
Barton  was  already  on  the  ocean,  and 
soon  after  was  in  the  war  zone  with  the 
German  army.  She  was  with  the  first  who 
climbed  the  defenses  of  Strassburg,  where 
she  ministered  to  the  wounded  and  dying. 
At  the  close  of  her  work  there  she  took 
ten  thousand  garments  with  her  to  France. 
There  she  waited  till  the  Commune  fell  and 
again  she  was  with  the  first  to  reach  the 
suffering.  In  our  own  war  with  Spain 
she  went  to  Cuba,  and  though  then  past 
sixty  years  of  age,  she  stood  among  the 
cots  of  our  wounded  and  sick  soldiers, 
soothing  their  sufferings  and  cheering 
their  hearts. 

Still  later  on  in  storm-swept  Galveston, 
Texas,  she  fell  at  her  post  of  duty  and  was 
borne  back  by  loving  hands  to  her  home, 
where  she  recovered  and  again  resumed 
her  work  of  love  and  mercy,  to  carry  it  on 
to  the  end  of  her  long  and  useful  life. 

No  wonder  the  King  and  court  of  Ger- 
many bestowed  upon  her  medals  of  re- 
membrance; no  wonder  the  Grand  Duch- 
ess of  Baden  placed  upon  her  the  "Red 
Cross  of  Geneva;"  and  in  the  great  day 
of  reward,  He  who  bore  the  cross  for  us 


44  POPULAR  LECTURES. 

all  will  place  upon  Clara  Barton  the  crown 
of  eternal  life. 

When  my  wife  was  president  of  the 
House  of  Mercy,  in  Lexington,  Kentucky, 
a  -home  for  the  rescue  of  fallen  girls,  she 
went  in  her  carriage  to  a  dentist  with  one 
of  the  unfortunate  inmates. 

Soon  after  a  business  man  of  the  city 
said  to  me:  "I  hardly  see  how  you  can 
give  your  consent  to  have  your  wife  do 
such  work.  I  saw  her  recently  in  her  car- 
riage with  a  girl  I  would  not  have  my 
wife  seen  with  for  any  amount  of  money." 

My  reply  was :  "I  would  rather  my  wife 
should  go  through  the  golden  gates,  bear- 
ing in  her  arms  the  spirit  of  a  poor  girl, 
snatched  from  the  hell  of  a  harlot's  home, 
than  to  be  the  leader  of  the  fashionable 
four  hundred  of  New  York  City." 

There  is  a  beautiful  story  told  of  one  of 
the  most  influential  and  wealthy  men  of 
England.  He  inherited  fame  as  well  as 
fortune,  had  an  Oxford  education  and  ear- 
ly in  life  he  was  elected  a  member  of  Par- 
liament. One  evening  he  sat  in  his  fine 
library,  watching  the  wood  fire  build  its 
temples  of  flame  around  the  great  and- 
irons, and  as  he  heard  the  beating  of  the 
wild  winter  storm  against  the  window 


AMONG  THE  MASSES.  45 

pane,  his  heart  went  out  to  the  homeless 
hungry  poor  of  the  city.  Ordering  his 
carriage  he  went  to  the  city  mission  and 
asked  for  a  helper,  and  then  drove  to  Lon- 
don Bridge,  under  the  shelter  of  which 
the  penniless  poor  gather  in  time  of 
storms.  He  took  them  two  by  two  to 
shelter,  gave  them  food,  and  cots  on  which 
to  sleep,  and  then  returned  to  his  princely 
home.  We  are  told  that  for  years  after, 
when  Parliament  would  adjourn  at  mid- 
night, this  young  man  would  go  through 
the  slums  on  his  way  home,  that  he  might 
relieve  some  poor  child  of  misfortune. 

On  Sunday  afternoons,  while  aristocra- 
cy lined  the  boulevards,  this  son  *>f  fort- 
une would  take  his  physician  in  his  car- 
riage and  go  through  the  slums,  seeking 
the  sick  and  suffering.  One  afternoon, 
while  he  stood  outside  a  tenement  door, 
awaiting  the  return  of  the  doctor  from 
a  visit  to  a  poor  sick  soul  inside  the  ten- 
ement, he  became  deeply  moved  by  the 
ragged  children  playing  in  the  gutters  and 
reaching  into  garbage  barrels  for  crusts 
of  bread.  He  said :  "Ah !  here's  the  rid- 
dle of  civilization.  I  wish  I  could  help  to 
solve  it ;  perhaps  I  can.** 

He  began  the  establishment  of  "ragged 


46  POPULAR  LECTURES. 

schools"  and  into  these  were  gathered 
thousands  of  poor  children.  Then  follow- 
ed night  schools  for  boys  who  had  to  work 
by  day.  To  these  schools  he  added  homes 
for  working  women,  and  for  these  women 
he  persuaded  Parliament  to  give  shorter 
hours  of  service.  He  tore  down  old  rook- 
eries, built  neat  dwellings  instead,  beneath 
the  windows  planted  little  flower  gardens, 
and  rented  them  to  the  poor  at  the  same 
price  they  had  paid  for  the  rookeries. 

When  he  began  to  fade,  as  the  leaf  fades 
in  its  autumn  beauty,  and  the  day  of  his 
departure  was  at  hand,  he  said:  "I  am 
sorry  to  leave  the  world  with  so  much 
misery  in  it,  but  I  have  lived  to  prove  that 
every  kind  word  spoken,  and  every  good 
deed  done,  sooner  or  later  returns  to  bless 
the  giver." 

As  the  end  drew  near  he  said  to  his 
daughter:  "Read  me  the  twenty-third 
Psalm,  for  'though  I  walk  through  the 
valley  of  the  shadow  of  death,  I  fear  no 
evil/  " 

A  few  days  later  Westminster  Abbey 
was  crowded  with  England's  nobility  to 
do  him  honor.  When  the  funeral  process- 
ion reached  Trafalgar  Square,  thousands 
of  working  women  stood,  with  uncovered 


AMONG  THE  MASSES.  47 

heads  and  tearful  eyes,  to  pay  their  trib- 
ute. Children  came  from  the  "ragged 
schools"  bearing  banners  with  the  motto: 
"I  was  naked  and  ye  clothed  me."  From 
the  hospitals  came  the  motto:  "I  was  sick 
and  ye  visited  me,"  while  the  working 
girls  came  with  a  silk  flag  on  which  they 
had  embroidered  with  their  own  fingers: 
"Inasmuch  as  ye  did  it  unto  the  least  of 
these,  ye  did  it  unto  me." 

Thus  loaded  down  with  the  fruits  of  the 
Spirit,  Lord  Shaf tsbury  died,  and  yet  lives 
in  memory  as  the  noblest  embodiment  of 
Christian  charity. 

That's  sweet  music  when  nature  hangs 
her  wind-harps  in  the  trees  for  autumn 
breezes  to  play  thereon;  that  must  have 
been  sweet  music  when  Jenny  Lind  so 
charmed  the  world  with  her  voice,  and 
when  Ole  Bull  rosined  the  bow  and  touched 
the  strings  of  his  violin;  that  was  sweet 
music  when  I  sat  in  the  twilight  on  the 
stoop  of  my  childhood's  home  and  heard 
the  welkin  ring  with  the  songs  of  the  old 
plantation ;  but  the  sweetest  music  in  this 
old  world  is  that  which  thrills  the  soul 
when  spoken  in  "words  of  love  and  deeds 
of  kindness."  Cultivate  the  trait  of  sym- 
pathy. The  good  things  you  are  going  to 


48  POPULAR  LECTURES. 

say  of  your  friend  when  he's  dead,  say 
them  to  him  while  he's  alive.  Take  care 
of  the  living;  God  will  care  for  the  dead. 
To  the  trait  of  sympathy  I  would  add 
two  grand  traits — decision  and  courage. 

"Tender  handed  touch  a  nettle. 
And  it  stings  you  for  your  pains; 

Grasp  it  like  a  man  of  mettle, 
Silk  it  in  your  hand  remains." 

The  decision  to  throw  over  the  tea  in 
Boston  harbor,  to  write  ''Charles  Carroll 
of  Carrolton,"  and  the  courage  to  say, 
"Give  me  liberty  or  give  me  death,"  gave 
us  this  government  by  and  for  the  people. 

"If  you  come  to  a  river  deep  and  wide, 
And  you've  no  canoe  to  skim  it; 

If  your  duty's  on  the  other  side, 
Jump  in,  my  boy,  and  swim  it." 

Have  the  courage  to  stand  for  what  you 
believe  to  be  right.  You  may  have  to  go 
ahead  of  public  sentiment  at  times,  but 
you  will  be  rewarded  in  having  your  con- 
viction and  conscience  with  you. 

A  number  of  years  ago  in  Boston,  I  gave 
a  temperance  address  on  Sunday  after- 
noon in  Music  Hall.  At  the  close  of  the 
lecture  a  friend  said  to  me:  "You  said 


AMONG  THE  MASSES.  49 

some  good  things  but  though  from  the  old 
bourbon  State  of  Kentucky,  you  are  ahead 
of  public  sentiment  in  Boston." 

I  replied:  "Public  sentiment  does  not 
always  indicate  what  is  right  even  in  Bos- 
ton. On  your  beautiful  Commonwealth 
Avenue  yesterday  afternoon  I  met  an  ele- 
gantly dressed  lady,  I  suppose  a  wealthy 
one  from  her  jewels  and  dress.  She  had 
a  poodle  dog  in  her  arms,  with  a  blue  rib- 
bon on  its  neck.  Yet,  the  same  woman 
wouldn't  be  caught  carrying  her  six- 
weeks'  old  baby  down  the  street  for  any 
consideration." 

Such  is  public  sentiment  in  fashionable 
society  in  our  cities,  and  yet  the  highest 
type  of  the  world's  creation  is  a  pure, 
sweet  mother  with  a  babe  in  her  arms,  and 
another  holding  her  apron  strings.  I 
think  it  would  be  a  blessing  to  home  life 
if  an  avenging  angel  should  go  through 
this  country,  smiting  every  English  pug 
and  poodle  dog  bought  to  take  the  place  of 
babies.  In  their  places  I  would  put 
bright-eyed,  rosy  cheeked  children  to  greet 
fathers  when  they  return  home  from  their 
day's  labor. 

Battle  for  the  right,  remembering  that 
far  better  is  a  fiery  furnace  with  an  an- 


50  POPULAR  LECTURES. 

gel  for  company,  than  worshiping1  a  brazen 
image  on  the  plains  of  Dura. 

Some  young  man  may  now  be  saying 
in  his  mind,  "For  me  to  always  stand  for 
the  right  would  be  to  meet  difficulties  at 
every  step  of  the  way."  Don't  get  alarm- 
ed over  difficulties.  Half  of  them  are  im- 
aginary. 

I  made  my  first  trip  to  California  thirty- 
five  years  ago.  One  morning  I  stood  on 
the  eastern  edge  of  the  plains  with  a 
sleeping  car  berth  at  my  service  and  a 
through  ticket  to  San  Francisco  in  my 
pocket,  while  the  iron  horse  stood  there  all 
harnessed  and  ready  for  the  journey. 
Wasn't  I  in  good  condition  for  the  trip? 
Yes,  but  I  saw  trouble  before  me.  One 
can  always  see  trouble  who  looks  for  it. 
I  had  never  been  across  the  plains  and  be- 
fore the  time  for  the  train  to  start  I  walk- 
ed to  the  front  of  the  engine  and  looking 
along  the  track  as  it  reached  out  across 
the  prairie  I  saw  trouble.  What  was  it? 
Why,  six  miles  ahead  the  track  wasn't 
wide  enough.  Yes,  I  saw  it.  Then  on  six 
miles  more  the  rails  came  together,  with 
my  destination  nineteen  hundred  miles 
away.  Soon  the  train  moved  and  as  we 
neared  the  difficulty,  the  track  opened  to 


AMONG  THE  MASSES.  51 

welcome  us.  Not  a  pin  was  torn  up  nor 
a  rail  displaced.  Again  I  looked  anead 
and  a  mountain  was  on  the  track,  but  be- 
fore I  had  time  to  get  off  the  mountain  got 
off.  Next  came  a  precipice  and  the  engine 
making  directly  for  it,  but  we  dodged  that 
and  I  concluded  our  train  had  right  of 
way,  so  I  stuck  to  the  Pullman  car  and 
went  through  all  right. 

Ever  since  God  made  the  world  princi- 
ple has  had  right  of  way.  Get  you  a 
through  ticket,  get  on  the  train,  battle  for 
the  right  and  you'll  come  out  victorious 
in  the  end. 

Napoleon  said:  "God  is  on  the  side  of 
the  strongest  battalions."  He  entered 
Moscow  with  one  hundred  and  twenty 
thousand  men.  Snow  began  to  fall  sev- 
eral weeks  earlier  than  usual,  the  high- 
ways were  blocked,  frost  fiends  ruled  the 
air,  the  great  French  army  was  broken 
into  pieces  and  Napoleon  had  to  fly  for  his 
life.  God  taught  Napoleon  as  well  as  the 
commander  of  the  great  Spanish  Armada, 
that  victory  is  in  the  hands  of  Him  who 
rules  weather  and  waves. 

The  next  trait  I  would  mention  is  con- 
tentment. Many  persons  make  themselves 
miserable  by  contrasting  the  little  they 


52  POPULAR  LECTURES. 

have  with  the  much  that  others  have, 
when  if  they  would  compare  their  bless- 
ings with  the  miseries  of  others  it  would 
add  to  their  contentment.  Let  me  give 
you  an  old  but  a  good  motto :  "Never  any- 
thing so  bad,  tout  it  might  have  been 
worse !" 

It  is  told  of  a  happy  hearted  old  man 
that  no  matter  what  would  happen  he 
would  say:  "It  might  have  been  worse." 
A  friend,  who  wanted  to  see  if  the  old  man 
would  say  the  same  under  all  circumstan- 
ces, went  into  a  grocery  store  where  he 
was  seated  by  a  big  fire  and  said : 

"Uncle  Jim,  last  night  I  dreamt  I  died 
and  was  sent  to  perdition." 

Prompt  the  reply  came :  "Well,  it  might 
have  been  worse." 

When  some  one  asked,  "How  could  it 
have  been  worse,"  he  answered :  "It  might 
have  been  true." 

Doctor  A.  A.  Willetts,  "the  Apostle  of 
Sunshine,"  used  to  say:  "There  are  two 
things  I  never  worry  over ;  one  is  the  thing 
I  can  help,  the  other  is  the  thing  I  can't 
help."  "Count  your  blessings,"  was  a  fa- 
vorite expression  of  the  same  beloved  old 
man. 

There  are  more  bright  days  than  cloudy 


AMONG  THE  MASSES.  53 

ones,  a  thousand  song  birds  for  every  rain- 
crow,  a  whole  acre  of  green  grass  for  every 
grave,  more  persons  outside  the  peniten- 
tiary than  inside,  more  good  men  than 
bad,  more  good  women  than  good  men; 
slavery,  dueling,  lottery  and  polygamy  are 
outlawed,  the  saloon  is  on  the  run,  the 
wide  world  will  soon  be  so  sick  of  war  that 
universal  peace,  with  "good  will  among 
men,"  will  prevail,  labor  and  capital  will 
be  peaceful  partners  and  human  brother- 
hood will  rule  in  righteousness  through- 
out the  world. 

"0,  this  is  not  so  bad  a  world, 
As  some  would  like  to  make  it, 

And  whether  it  is  good  or  bad, 
Depends  on  how  we  take  it." 

Fanny  Crosby,  whose  gospel  hymns  are 
continually  singing  souls  into  the  king- 
dom, when  but  six  weeks  old  lost  her  sight 
and  for  ninety-two  years  made  her  way  in 
literal  darkness,  without  seeing  the  beau- 
ties of  nature  about  her,  the  blue  sky  with 
its  sun,  moon  and  stars  above  her,  the 
faces  of  her  loved  ones,  and  yet  at  ninety- 
two  she  said :  "I  never  worry,  never  think 
disagreeable  things,  never  find  fault  with 
anything  or  anybody.  If  in  all  the  world 


54  POPULAR  LECTURES. 

there  is  a  happier  being  than  myself,  I 
would  like  to  shake  that  one's  hand."  No 
wonder  out  of  such  contentment  came 
such  songs  as,  "Jesus  is  calling,"  "I  am 
Thine,  0  Lord,"  "Safe  in  the  arms  of  Je- 
sus." 

How  different  the  cultured  young  wom- 
an, with  all  her  senses  preserved,  who  af- 
ter passing  through  a  flower  garden  where 
perfect  sight  had  feasted  on  the  beauty  of 
the  scene  said : 

"To  think  of  summers  yet  to  come, 

That  I  am  not  to  see ; 
To  think  a  weed  is  yet  to  bloom, 

From  dust  that  I  shall  be." 

Poor  soul!  Instead  of  enjoying  the 
summer  she  had,  she  was  coveting  all  the 
summers  between  her  and  eternity.  In- 
stead of  thanking  God  for  the  immortality 
of  the  soul  when  done  with  the  body,  she 
was  disappointed  because  she  couldn't  car- 
ry the  old  body  along  with  her.  Don't  let 
these  things  trouble  you.  Live  one  sum- 
mer so  you  will  be  worthy  to  breathe  the 
air  of  the  next  if  you  live  to  see  it;  take 
care  of  your  body  so  it  will  make  a  decent 
weed  if  God  chooses  to  make  one  out  of 
your  remains. 


AMONG  THE  MASSES.  55 

Enjoy  what  you  have,  don't  covet  what 
you  have  not,  thank  God  for  your  home  on 
earth,  follow  Fanny  Crosby's  receipt  for 
contentment  and  you  will  be  happy  enough 
to  shake  hands  with  her  in  the  "Land  of 
the  Leal." 

Before  I  close  would  you  like  to  have 
me  point  you  to  greatness?  In  attempt- 
ing to  do  so,  I  would  not  point  you  to  Con- 
gress hall  or  Senate  chamber.  You  can 
find  greatness  anywhere. 

That  was  greatness  when  John  Barthol- 
amew  held  the  throttle  of  an  engine  going 
over  the  Sierra  mountains,  with  a  train 
load  of  passengers  depending  upon  his 
skill  and  caution,  and  swinging  round  a 
curve  he  saw  the  wood-work  of  a  tunnel 
before  him  on  fire.  To  attempt  to  stop 
the  train  then,  would  be  to  halt  in  the 
flames.  He  threw  on  more  steam  and  sent 
the  train  whizzing  through  the  furnace  of 
fire.  Passing  out  on  the  other  end  he  was 
badly  burned,  but  still  held  the  rein  of  his 
iron  horse.  A  poem  dedicated  to  this  brave 
engineer  closes  with  the  verse : 

"I  'spose  I  might  have  jumped  the  train, 
In  thought  of  saving  sinew  and  bone, 


56  POPULAR  LECTURES. 

And  left  them  women  and  children 
To  take  the  ride  alone. 

"But  I  thought  on  a  day  of  recknin', 
And  whatever  old  John  done  here, 

The  Lord  ain't  going  to  say  to  him  there, 
'You  went  back  as  an  engineer/  " 

History  of  life  on  the  ocean  tells  us  of  a 
ship  doomed  to  go  down  with  four  hun- 
dred human  beings  on  board.  The  pumps 
were  not  equal  to  the  task  of  holding  the 
water  down  to  the  safety  line.  The  cap- 
tain said :  "We  will  draw  lots  for  the  life- 
boats, one  hundred  and  twenty  will  go  in 
them  and  the  remainder  must  go  down 
with  the  ship." 

One  after  another  drew  his  lot.  A  sail- 
or, who  had  drawn  the  lot  of  death, 
walked  to  the  railing  and  said  to  a  com- 
rade in  a  life-boat:  "When  you  reach  the 
shore,  see  my  wife,  tell  her  good-bye  for 
me  and  help  her  in  getting  my  back  pay, 
for  she  will  need  it,"  and  he  stepped  back 
and  took  his  place  with  the  doomed. 

Finally  the  old  mate  thrust  in  his 
brawny  hand  and  drew  a  lot  for  the  life- 
boats. He  stepped  aside  to  watch  those 
to  follow  in  the  drawing,  when  a  very  pop- 
ular officer  of  the  ship  drew  his  lot.  He 


AMONG  THE  MASSES.  57 

was  doomed  to  go  down  with  the  ship. 
Though  a  brave  man,  the  thought  of  his 
loved  ones  at  home  overcame  him,  and 
dropping  upon  his  knees  he  said :  "0  God, 
have  mercy  upon  my  wife  and  little  child- 
ren." 

The  old  mate  went  up  to  him  and  taking 
his  hand  said:  "We  have  been  in  many 
storms  together  and  have  been  good 
friends  for  years.  You  have  a  wife  and 
three  sweet  little  children,  while  I  have  no 
one  that  will  rejoice  at  my  coming,  nor 
will  any  one  weep  if  I  never  return.  It 
might  have  been  my  fate  to  go  down  in- 
stead of  you,  and  it  shall  be.  You  take 
my  lot,  and  I'll  take  yours." 

The  offer  was  refused,  but  the  mate 
forced  his  friend  into  a  boat  saying, 
"Good-bye,  I'll  die  for  you  like  a  man." 

The  greatness  of  this  world  doesn't  all 
belong  to  your  Solons,  Solomons,  Wash- 
ingtons,  Napoleons,  Grants,  Lees  or  Glad- 
stones, but  yonder  in  the  humbler  walks 
of  life  are  heroes  and  heroines,  who  in  the 
final  reckoning  day,  will  pale  the  lustre  of 
some  whose  names  are  engraved  on  mar- 
ble monuments  and  whose  praises  are  per- 
petuated in  poetry  and  song. 

If  you  ask  me  to  point  you  to  greatness 


58  POPULAR  LECTURES. 

I  do  not  direct  your  minds  to  historic 
heights,  but  that  you  may  win  your  share 
of  greatness  I  close  this  address  by  saying, 
wherever  your  lot  in  life  be  cast, 

"In  the  name  of  God  advancing, 

Plow,  sow  and  labor  now ; 
Let  there  be  when  evening  cometh, 

Honest  sweat  upon  thy  brow. 

Then  will  come  the  Master, 
When  work  stops  at  set  of  sun, 

Saying,  as  He  pays  the  wages, 
'Good  and  faithful  one,  well  done.' " 


0 

A    SEARCHLIGHT    OF    THE    TWEN- 
TIETH CENTURY. 

But  a  little  more  than  a  century  ago, 
the  old  world  laughed  at  the  new.  Writ- 
ers of  the  old  world  called  our  American 
eagle,  "a  paper  bird,  brooding  over  a  bar- 
ren waste;"  yet  in  what  they  then  called 
a  barren  waste,  railroads  now  carry  more 
of  the  products  of  the  earth,  than  all  the 
railroads  of  all  the  lands,  of  all  the  peo- 
ples on  the  face  of  the  earth. 

When  New  England  people  believed 
there  would  never  be  anything  worth 
having  west  of  the  Connecticut  River, 
what  if  some  seer  had  prophesied  that  in 
nineteen  hundred  there  would  be  a  city 
on  Manhattan  Island  named  New  York 
that  would  rival  London,  two  southwest, 
Baltimore  and  Washington  to  equal  Ven- 
ice, Philadelphia  to  match  Liverpool, 
Pittsburg  and  Buffalo  to  surpass  Birm- 
ingham, and  beyond  these  a  city  called 
BQ 


60  POPULAR  LECTURES. 

Chicago,  which  in  grit  and  growth  would 
beat  anything  the  old  world  ever  dreamt 
of;  while  on  still  farther  west,  would  be 
a  State  named  Iowa,  in  which  in  nineteen 
hundred  and  fourteen,  would  be  produced 
enough  cattle  to  beef  England,  enough 
potatoes  to  feed  Ireland  and  hogs  to  "beat 
the  Jews." 

What  if  he  had  continued;  that  in  the 
libraries  of  the  barren  waste,  there  would 
be  ten  million  more  books,  than  in  the 
combined  libraries  of  Europe;  that  its 
college  students  would  outnumber  the 
college  students  of  England,  France  and 
Germany  combined ;  that  its  wealth  would 
be  great  enough  to  purchase  the  empires 
of  Russia  and  Turkey,  the  kingdoms  of 
Norway,  Sweden,  Denmark  and  Switzer- 
land, with  South  Africa  and  all  her  dia- 
mond mines  thrown  in,  and  then  have 
enough  left  to  buy  a  dozen  archipelagoes 
at  twenty  millions  each,  and  still  have  the 
wealth  of  the  republic  growing  at  the 
rate  of  five  millions  of  dollars  every 
twenty-four  hours.  What  a  land  in  which 
to  live!  Think  of  it;  less  than  a  century 
and  a  half  ago,  Liberty  and  England's 
runaway  daughter,  Columbia,  took  each 
other  "for  better  or  for  worse,  forever 


A  SEARCHLIGHT  61 

and  for  aye"  and  started  down  time's  rug- 
ged stream  of  years.  George  Washing- 
ton, then  Chief  Magistrate,  performed  the 
ceremony,  and  what  he  joined  together 
time  has  not  put  asunder.  It  was  not  a 
wedding  in  high  life,  such  as  shakes  the 
foundation  of  fashionable  society  today, 
but  rather  more  like  the  swearing  away 
of  a  verdant  country  couple,  in  some  Gret- 
na  Green,  with  no  other  capital  than 
youth,  health  and  trusting  confidence.  We 
have  had  some  domestic  discords;  once  a 
very  serious  family  row,  but  I  of  the 
South,  join  you  of  the  North,  in  thanks  to 
God,  the  application  for  divorce  was  not 
granted,  and  we  are  still  a  united  repub- 
lic. 

The  memories  which  followed  that  civil 
strife  were  so  bitter,  doubtless  many  of 
you  northern  brethren  believed  the  men 
who  surrendered  at  Appomattox  were  not 
any  too  sincere,  and  if  we  should  ever 
have  war  with  any  foreign  country,  the 
north,  east  and  west  would  have  to  fur- 
nish the  patriotism,  for  the  South  would 
never  again  march  under  the  stars  and 
stripes.  But  when  the  Spanish-American 
war  broke  out,  the  first  boy  to  pour  out 
his  heart's  blood  for  his  country's  flag, 


62  POPULAR  LECTURES. 

was  Ensign  Bagley,  of  North  Carolina. 
The  young  man  who  penetrated  the  Is- 
land of  Cuba,  'mid  Spanish  bayonets  and 
bullets,  and  searched  out  Cevera  and  his 
fleet  in  the  harbor  was  Victor  Blue,  the 
son  of  a  Confederate  soldier.  The  young 
man  who  sank  the  Merrimac,  Captain 
Richmond  Pearson  Hobson,  was  the  son 
of  another  Confederate.  Our  Consul  in 
Cuba,  whose  patriotism  no  one  ever 
doubted,  was  General  Fitzhugh  Lee,  and 
the  old  man  who  planted  the  flag  in  the 
tree-tops  around  Santiago,  and  led  two 
negro  regiments  into  the  battle,  was  fight- 
ing Joe  Wheeler  of  the  Confederate  army. 

If  I  were  to  close  here,  what  an  opti- 
mistic picture  would  be  left  in  the  glow 
of  the  century's  searchlight.  But  alas! 
we  have  unsolved  problems  of  imperial 
moment,  and  my  purpose  is  to  throw  the 
searchlight  upon  a  few  of  these  unsolved 
problems. 

First,  being  a  southern  man,  I  shall 
turn  it  upon  the  Race  Problem. 

A  century  ago  the  Indian  question  was 
a  perplexing  problem,  but  it  cuts  but  lit- 
tle figure  now,  for  the  Indian  is  nightly 
pitching  his  moving  tepee  a  day's  march 


A  SEARCHLIGHT.  63 

nearer  the  sunset  shore,  where  one  more 
shove,  and, 

"Mad  to  life's  history 
Glad  to  death's  mystery," 

the  red  race  will  go,  to  where  the  pale 
face  will  cease  from  troubling,  and  the 
weary  spirit  will  find  its  rest  at  last. 

The  Chinese  question  is  of  equal  insig- 
nificance, since  our  doors  are  closed  and 
barred  against  the  almond  eyes  of  the 
Orient. 

The  Negro  question  seems  to  be  the 
race  riddle  of  our  civilization  and  it  will 
take  much  tact,  patience  and  wisdom  to 
solve  the  problem.  It  may  be  a  revelation 
to  some  of  you  to  know,  that  at  the  rate 
the  negro  race  has  grown  since  the  Civil 
War,  when  the  twentieth  century  goes 
out,  there  will  be  sixty  millions  of  negroes 
in  one  black  belt  across  the  Southland.  I 
say  across  the  Southland,  because,  the 
main  body  of  the  negro  race  will  never 
leave  the  track  of  the  southern  sun.  The 
South  held  the  negro  in  slavery,  the  North 
set  him  free.  We  supposed  at  the  close 
of  the  war,  he  would  leave  the  South  and 
go  to  live  among  his  liberators.  But  af- 
ter half  a  century,  he  is  still  clinging  to 


64  POPULAR  LECTURES. 

the  cotton  and  the  cane,  or  sitting  in  his 
log  house  home,  the  "shadowed  livery  of 
the  burning  sun"  upon  his  brow,  the  plan- 
tation song  still  lingering  on  his  lips,  the 
banjo  tuned  to  memory's  melodies  on  his 
knee,  a  clump  of  kinky-headed  pickanin- 
nies playing  in  the  sand  about  his  cabin 
door,  and  there  he  sits  multiplying  the 
Southland  and  problemizing  the  century. 

I  have  not  time  to  discuss  at  length  the 
solution  of  the  problems  before  us,  but  1 
hope  to  present  them  in  such  a  manner 
as  wMl  help  you  to  appreciate  their  impor- 
tance and  how  they  are  linked  with  the 
destiny  of  the  republic. 

It  seems  to  me  exaltation  of  character, 
dignification  of  labor,  material  prosperity, 
leaving  social  equality  to  take  care  of  it- 
self, makes  up  the  best  solution  of  the 
negro  problem.  Social  equality  does  take 
care  of  itself  even  among  the  white  races. 
Some  of  you  may  have  a  white  servant 
who  is  a  good  woman,  a  Christian  wo- 
man, you  expect  to  meet  her  in  heaven  (if 
you  get  there) ,  but  she  is  not  admitted  to 
your  social  set. 

There  is  a  vast  difference  between  social 
rights  and  civil  rights.  Near  Lexington, 
Ky.,  where  I  claim  my  home,  is  the  coun- 


A  SEARCHLIGHT.  65 

try  residence  of  J.  B.  Haggin,  the  multi- 
millionaire horseman.  Soon  after  the 
completion  of  his  mansion  home,  he  gave 
a  reception  which  cost  thousands  of  dol- 
lars. The  "first  cut"  of  society  came  from 
far  and  near,  ~but  I  was  not  invited,  nor 
did  I  feel  slighted,  for  I  had  no  claim  up- 
on the  millionaire  magnate  socially.  But 
when  I  meet  the  great  turf-king  on  the 
turnpike,  he  in  his  limozine  and  I  in  my 
little  runabout,  I  say,  "Mr.  Haggin,  give 
me  half  the  road,  sir."  Inside  his  gates 
I  have  no  claim,  but  outside,  the  turnpikers 
free,  and  J.  B.  Haggin  can't  run  over  me. 
So  the  negro  has  no  claim  on  the  white 
man  for  social  equality,  but  he  has  a 
right  to  the  key  of  knowledge  and  a 
chance  in  the  world. 

Slavery  was  not  an  unmixed  evil.  Like 
the  famed  shield  it  had  two  sides.  While 
it  had  its  blighting  effects  it  had  its  bless- 
ings. In  bondage  the  negro  was  taught 
to  speak  the  English  language,  and  in 
childhood  had  the  association  of  white 
children  with  their  southern  home  train- 
ing. They  were  taught  two  valuable  les- 
sons, industry  and  obedience,  without 
which  liberty  means  license.  The  negro 
was  compelled  to  work  and  obey,  two  les- 


66  POPULAR  LECTURES. 

sons  the  Indian  never  had  and  never  re- 
spected. Beside  these  valuable  lessons  the 
negro  was  taught  the  fundamental  prin- 
ciples of  Christianity  and  at  the  opening 
of  the  war  nearly  every  negro  belonged 
to  some  church.  Their  preachers  used  to 
get  their  dictionary  and  Bible  very  amus- 
ingly mixed  at  times.  Elder  Barton  ex- 
horting his  hearers  said :  "Paul  may  plant 
and  Apolinarus  water,  but  if  you  keeps  on 
tradin'  off  your  birthright  for  a  pot  of 
Messapotamia  you'se  gwine  to  git  lost. 
You  may  go  down  into  de  water  and  come 
up  out  ob  de  water  like  dat  Ethiopian 
Unitarium,  but  if  you  keeps  on  ossifyin* 
from  one  saloon  to  another;  if  you  keeps 
on  breakin'  the  ten  commandments  to  sat- 
isfy your  appetite  for  chicken;  if  you 
keeps  on  spendin*  your  time  playing  craps, 
the  fourteenth  amendment  ain't  gwine  to 
save  you.  Seben  come  elebin  never  took 
a  man  to  Heben.  I  want  you  to  understand 
dat."  Yet  from  such  crudeness  of  expres- 
sion has  come  preaching,  remarkable  for 
thought  as  well  as  scholarship  and  elo- 
quence, while  out  of  the  suffering  of  slav- 
ery, through  the  law  of  compensation,  we 
have  matchless  melodies  in  negro  choirs 
and  negro  concert  companies. 


A  SEARCHLIGHT.  67 

Leaders  of  thought  may  differ  as  to  the 
methods  of  solution,  but  upon  one  thing 
all  must  agree.  The  net-work  of  our  re- 
public is  such  that  if  one  suffers  all  suf- 
fer, and  the  negro  is  so  interwoven  with 
the  various  interests  of  our  National  life, 
we  must  level  the  race  up  or  it  will  level 
the  white  race  down.  The  lower  classes 
must  be  lifted  to  the  tableland  of  a  better 
life,  where  they  can  breathe  the  pure 
air  of  intelligence  and  morality,  or  they 
will  pollute  the  whole  body  politic.  They 
must  also  acquire  property.  Economy  is 
a  lesson  the  negro  race  needs  to  learn. 
This  lesson  was  well  presented  to  a  drunk- 
en white  man  by  a  sober  old  negro.  The 
white  man  spent  his  money  for  liquor,  and 
then  started  for  home.  Reaching  a  river 
he  must  cross  by  ferry,  he  found  he  had 
spent  his  last  penny  for  drink.  Seeing  an 
old  colored  man  seated  at  a  cabin  door 
near  by,  he  turned  toward  the  cabin. 
Nearing  the  old  man  he  said: 

"Uncle,  would  you  loan  me  three  cents 
to  cross  the  ferry?" 

"Boss,  ain't  you  got  three  cents?" 

"I  ain't  got  one  cent,"  replied  the  white 
man.  *  ,, 

"Well,  you  can't  git  the  three  cents.  Ef 


68  POPULAR  LECTURES. 

you  ain't  got  three  cents,  you'se  just  as 
well  off  on  one  side  de  river  as  you  is  on 
de  other." 

I  said  we  may  differ  as  to  methods  for 
solving  this  race  problem.  Remembering 
as  I  do  the  days  of  slavery,  how  in  Chris- 
tian homes  the  most  merciful  masters  and 
the  most  faithful  slaves  were  found,  I  be- 
lieve the  best  solution  lies  in  the  golden 
rule  of  the  gospel  of  Jesus  Christ. 

I  now  give  the  searchlight  a  swing  and 
it  falls  upon  the  City  Problem.  , 

At  the  opening  of  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury three  per  cent,  of  the  people  of  this 
country  lived  in  cities,  ninety-seven  per 
cent  in  the  country.  At  the  rate  migra- 
tion is  now  going  from  country  to  city  in 
twenty  years  there  will  be  ten  millions 
more  people  in  the  cities  than  in  the  coun- 
try. This  means  a  change  of  civilization, 
and  new  problems  to  solve.  It  means  a 
day  when  cities  will  control  in  state  and 
national  elections,  and  if  ignorance  and 
vice  control  our  cities,  then  virtue  and  in- 
telligence as  saving  influences  will  not 
suffice  to  save  us.  The  ignorance  promi- 
nent in  the  machinery  of  large  cities  is 
illustrated  by  the  police  force  of  New 
York  City.  When  applicants  for  positions 


A  SEARCHLIGHT.  69 

on  the  police  force  were  being  tested  a 
few  years  ago,  the  question  was  asked: 
"Name  four  of  the  six  New  England 
States."  Several  replied:  "England,  Ire- 
land, Scotland  and  Wales."  Another  ques- 
tion was:  "Who  was  Abraham  Lincoln?" 
As  many  as  ten  answered:  "He  was  a 
great  general."  One  said:  "He  discov- 
ered America;"  another  said:  "He  was 
killed  by  a  man  name  Garfield;"  and  an- 
other's answer  was,  "He  was  shot  by 
Ballington  Booth." 

The  growth  of  large  cities  means  the 
growth  of  slum-life.  Hear  me,  you  who 
live  out  in  the  uncrowded  part  of  the 
country.  Maud  Ballington  Booth  tells  of 
finding  five  families,  living  in  one  attic 
room  in  New  York  City,  with  no  parti- 
tions between.  Here  they  "cook,  eat,  sleep, 
wash,  live  and  die,"  in  the  one  room.  In 
our  large  cities  are  armies  of  children, 
whose  shoulders  "droop  with  parental 
vice,"  whose  feet  are  fast  in  the  mire  of 
miserable  conditions,  whose  hovel  homes 
line  the  sewers  of  social  life,  and  who  are 
cursed  and  doomed  by  inheritance. 

Some  twenty  or  more  years  ago,  a 
Chicago  paper  that  had  money  behind  it, 
and  could  have  been  sued  for  damages 


70  POPULAR  LECTURES. 

said:  "The  man  who  controls  the  purse 
strings  of  this  city,  the  school  board  and 
board  of  public  works,  is  the  vilest  pro- 
duct of  the  slums,  a  saloon  keeper,  a 
gambler,  a  man  a  leading  citizen  of  this 
city  would  not  invite  into  his  home."  That 
man  then  controlled  the  purse  strings  of 
the  great  city  of  Chicago.  I  am  glad  to 
say  a  better  man  holds  the  place  today. 
Hannibal  could  not  save  Carthage;  De- 
mosthenes could  not  save  Greece;  Jesus 
himself  could  not  save  Jerusalem.  Can 
we  save  the  cities  of  this  republic? 

Yet  our  lads  and  lassies  are  eager  to 
leave  the  country  and  go  to  large  cities, 
where  gas-lit  streets  are  thronged  with 
humanity  and  entertainments  provided 
every  hour. 

A  country  boy  said  to  me:  "Mr.  Bain, 
you  go  everywhere;  you  see  everything;  I 
live  out  here  in  the  country  and  see  noth- 
ing." I  have  tried  it  all.  For  about 
twenty-eight  years  I  lived  in  the  country. 
Since  then  my  life  has  been  in  cities  and 
on  railroad  trains  between  the  oceans.  My 
experience  is,  there  is  no  life  that  keeps 
the  heart  so  pure  and  the  mind  so  con- 
tented as  life  in  the  country. 

Some  years  ago  I  gave  two  addresses 


A  SEARCHLIGHT.  71 

at  Ocean  Grove,  New  Jersey,  on  Satur- 
day evening  a  popular  lecture,  and  on 
Sunday  an  address  to  young  men.  I  had 
the  popular  lecture  made  but  not  the  Sun- 
day talk.  For  three  months  I  promised 
myself  to  get  that  lecture  but  kept  on  de- 
laying. As  I  neared  the  time  I  hoped 
something  would  prevent  my  going.  The 
time  came,  I  was  at  Ocean  Grove,  knew  I 
would  have  a  great  audience,  for  the  day 
was  ideal,  and  still  I  did  not  have  the  lec- 
ture except  in  skeleton  form.  After  break- 
fast Sunday  I  began  to  walk  the  floor, 
working  out  clothing  for  that  skeleton 
and  racking  my  brain  for  climaxes.  My 
wife  was  with  me  and  she  never  would 
worry  over  my  having  nothing  to  say. 
Into  every  sentence  I  would  weave  she 
would  inject  a  piece  of  her  mind  about 
home  or  children  or  some  woman's  dress 
or  bonnet.  I  said :  "This  is  a  trying  time 
with  me,  won't  you  take  a  stroll  along 
the  beach  and  let  me  be  alone  today?" 
Like  a  good  wife  she  gratified  my  request, 
and  left  me  to  work  and  worry  over  that 
lecture.  At  four  o'clock  p.  m.,  I  could 
not  see  daylight,  and  in  the  darkness  cried 
out :  "0  Lord,  if  you  will  help  me  this  time 
I  won't  ask  you  again  for  awhile."  The 


72  POPULAR  LECTURES. 

Lord  did  help  me.  My  friends  said  I  nev- 
er did  so  well  as  that  evening.  At  the 
close  of  the  lecture  the  audience  arose  and 
handkerchiefs,  like  so  many  white  doves, 
fluttered  in  the  air.  In  the  midst  of  that 
scene,  an  old  superannuated  minister  of 
the  New  York  Methodist  Conference 
planted  a  kiss  on  my  cheek,  and  I  have 
wondered  often,  why  a  man  should  have 
thought  of  that  instead  of  a  woman. 

At  the  close  of  the  service  a  friend  said : 
"That  must  have  been  the  proudest  mo- 
ment of  your  life,  for  surely  I  never  wit- 
nessed such  a  scene." 

I  said :  "No,  I  can  recall  one  that  was 
greater  than  the  white  lilies." 

Away  back  in  Bourbon  county,  Ken- 
tucky, when  I  was  not  quite  twenty  I  was 
married  to  a  girl  of  nineteen.  Soon  af- 
ter, we  went  to  housekeeping  in  a  country 
home.  It  was  supper  time.  I  had  fed  the 
chickens  and  horses,  and  washed  my  face 
in  a  tin  pan  on  the  kitchen  steps,  when  a 
sweet  voice  said :  "Come,  supper's  ready." 
As  I  entered  the  dining  room  my  young 
wife  came  through  the  kitchen  door,  the 
coffee  pot  in  her  hand,  her  cheeks  the  rud- 
dier from  the  glow  of  the  cook  stove,  her 
face  all  lit  up  with  expectancy  as  to  what 


A  SEARCHLIGHT.  73 

her  young  husband  would  think  of  his 
first  meal  prepared  by  his  wife.  All  the 
operas  I  have  heard  since,  and  all  the  cit- 
ies I  have  seen,  dwindle  into  insignifi- 
cance compared  with  that  pure,  peaceful 
home  in  the  country. 

Another  sweep  of  the  searchlight  brings 
us  to  the  Immigration  Problem.  We  are 
today  the  most  cosmopolitan  country  of 
the  world.  At  the  rate  of  a  million  a  year 
immigrants  are  pouring  in  upon  us,  and 
no  wonder  they  come,  when  they  read  of 
the  marvelous  fortunes  made  in  the  new 
world;  of  Mackay  a  penniless  boy  in  the 
old  world,  worth  fifty  millions  at  middle 
life  in  America;  A.  T.  Stewart  peddling 
lace  at  twenty,  a  merchant  prince  at  fifty ; 
Carnegie  a  poor  Scotch  lad  at  eighteen,  a 
half  billionaire  at  seventy.  These  with 
many  more  such  results  on  a  smaller  scale, 
rainbow  the  sky  that  spans  the  sea,  and 
from  the  other  end,  this  end  is  seen  pour- 
ing its  gold  and  greatness  into  the  lap  of 
the  land  of  the  free.  So  they  come,  and 
though  they  do  not  find  all  they  expected, 
they  do  find  far  more  here  than  they  left 
behind,  and  writing  letters  back  over  the 
ocean,  they  set  others  wild  with  a  desire  to 
live  in  America.  Many  of  them  are  ex- 


74  POPULAR  LECTURES. 

cellent  people;  their  children  go  into  our 
public  schools  and  come  out  with  ours, 
one  in  thought,  one  in  purpose,  one  in  feel- 
ing. A  little  boy  in  Chicago  said: 

"Papa,  you  were  born  in  England?" 

"Yes." 

"And  mama  was  born  in  Scotland?" 

"Yes." 

"And  you  had  a  king  at  the  head  of 
your  armies?" 

"Yes." 

"Well !  we  licked  you  all  the  same." 

The  children  of  our  foreign  born  citi- 
zens in  our  public  schools  are  intensely 
American.  A  boy  who  was  born  in  this 
country  but  whose  parents  were  foreign 
born,  was  for  some  misdemeanor  chastised 
by  his  father.  When  his  playmates  teased 
him  he  said:  "Oh,  the  whipping  didn't 
count  for  much,  but  I  don't  like  being 
licked  by  a  foreigner." 

There  is  another  class  coming  to  our 
country  not  only  injurious  but  dangerous. 
They  bring  with  them  the  heresies  of  the 
lands  they  hail  from.  They  do  not  come 
to  be  American  citizens.  There  is  not  an 
American  hair  in  their  heads,  or  an  Amer- 
ican thought  in  their  minds.  Every  drop 
of  blood  in  their  veins,  beats  to  the  music 


A  SEARCHLIGHT.  75 

of  continental  customs,  and  they  come 
prepared  to  sow  and  grow  the  seeds  of  an- 
archy. Many  come  with  tags  on  their 
backs  giving  their  destination;  not  to 
build  American  homes;  not  to  learn  our 
language;  not  to  obey  our  laws,  or  honor 
our  institutions,  but  to  undermine  the 
honest  laboring  classes  who  toil  to  build 
homes  and  educate  and  clothe  their  chil- 
dren. I  say,  take  off  their  tags  and  let 
them  tag  back  home.  Out  of  this  class 
came  the  men  who  cheered  to  the  echo  a 
speaker  in  Chicago  when  he  said:  "I  am 
in  favor  of  dynamiting  every  bank  vault 
in  this  city  and  taking  the  money  we  are 
entitled  to.'r  Out  of  such  schools  of  an- 
archy, came  the  man  who  crossed  the 
sea  from  Patterson,  New  Jersey,  to  send 
a  bullet  through  the  heart  of  King  Hum- 
bert, and  out  of  this  class  came  the  teach- 
ers, who  shrouded  our  land  with  shame 
and  sorrow  in  Buffalo,  New  York. 

Just  here,  I  congratulate  the  spirit  of 
William  McKinley  upon  its  auspicious 
flight  to  the  spirit  world.  There  is  no 
better  time  and  place  for  one  to  die,  than 
at  the  summit  of  true  greatness,  "en- 
shrined in  the  hearts  of  his  countrymen, 
at  peace  with  his  God,"  the  sun  of  his  life 


76          POPULAR  LECTURES. 

going  down,  "before  eye  has  grown  dim 
or  natural  force  has  abated."  Take  him 
from  the  time  he  entered  the  army,  where 
his  commanding  general  said:  "A  night 
was  never  so  dark,  storm  never  so  wild, 
weather  never  so  cold  as  to  interfere  with 
his  discharge  of  every  duty."  From  this 
time  on,  as  lawyer,  commonwealth's  at- 
torney, congressman,  governor,  and  pres- 
ident, he  was  a  Jonathan  to  his  friends,  a 
Ruth  to  his  kindred,  a  Jacob  to  his  fami- 
ly, a  Gideon  to  his  country.  Take  him  in 
private  life  where  an  intimate  friend  said : 
"I  never  heard  him  utter  a  word  his  wife 
or  mother  might  not  have  heard ;  I  never 
heard  him  speak  evil  of  any  man."  Take 
him  when  stricken  down  by  an  assassin, 
hear  him  say:  "Let  no  man  harm  him; 
let  the  law  take  its  course;  good-bye  to 
all;  God's  will  be  done,"  and  in  his  last 
conscious  moments  chanting  "Nearer  my 
God  to  Thee,"  and  you  have  one  of  the 
most  touching  stories  of  this  old  world. 
All  honor  to  our  martyred  president, 
William  McKinley. 

What  a  shame  that  in  a  land  whose 
constitution  guarantees  life,  liberty  anct 
the  pursuit  of  happiness  to  the  humblest 
citizen,  the  life  of  its  chief  executive  is 


A  SEARCHLIGHT.  77 

not  safe,  though  guarded  by  detectives 
and  surrounded  by  devoted  friends.  Until 
the  country  is  rid  of  organized  anarchy  it 
would  be  well  to  abandon  free-for-all 
hand-shaking. 

When  Senator  Hoar  made  his  speech 
in  the  United  States  Senate  against  an- 
archy he  said:  "It  would  be  well  if  the 
nations  of  the  earth  would  combine  to- 
gether, purchase  an  island  in  the  sea, 
place  all  anarchists  on  that  island,  and  let 
them  run  a  government  of  their  own."  An 
Irishman  said:  "I'm  not  in  favor  of  any 
sich  thing;  I  am  in  favor  of  gathering 
thim  up  all  right,  takin'  thim  out  in  the 
middle  of  the  ocean,  dumpin'  them  out, 
and  letin'  thim  find  their  own  island." 

Out  of  the  personal  liberty  league, 
which  is  but  another  form  of  anarchy, 
came  the  man  who  in  an  address  a  few 
years  ago  said:  "This  republic  is  our 
hunting  ground  and  the  American  Sab- 
bath shall  be  our  hunting  day.  Down  with 
the  American  Sabbath!" 

It  has  been  well  said:  "The  Sabbath  is 
the  window  of  our  week,  the  sky-light  of 
our  souls,  opened  by  divine  law  and  love, 
up  through  the  murk  and  cloud  and  tur- 
moil of  earthly  life  to  the  divine  life 


78  POPULAR  LECTURES. 

above."  Whoever  would  destroy  the  Sab- 
bath day  is  undermining  the  republic,  and 
any  man  who  does  not  like  the  restric- 
tions of  our  Sabbath,  can  find  a  vessel 
leaving  our  ports  about  every  day  in  the 
year.  He  can  take  passage  any  day  he 
chooses,  and  as  the  vessel  steams  out  we 
can  afford  to  sing,  "Praise  God  from 
whom  all  blessings  flow." 

Another  move  of  the  searchlight  and 
we  have  The  Expansion  Problem. 

Yonder  in  the  Philippine  Islands  are 
seventy  different  tribes,  speaking  many 
languages.  How  to  mold  them  into  one 
common  whole,  loyal  to  one  flag  is  a 
mighty  problem ;  and  yet  I  am  one  of  those 
who  believe  God  intends  this  American 
republic  shall  be  a  standard-bearer  of  civ- 
ilization to  the  darkest  corners  of  the 
earth.  I  do  not  mean  by  this  that  I  advo- 
cate imperialism  from  the  standpoint  of 
wider  domain.  Indeed  I  am  disposed  to 
dodge  the  question  of  imperialism,  as  I 
dodged  the  money  question  in  Colorado 
when  the  question  was  the  issue  in  poli- 
tics. I  gave  three  addresses  for  the 
Boulder,  Colorado,  Ohautauqua  when  the 
money  question  was  the  all-absorbing  one 
in  the  west  At  the  close  of  my  second 


A  SEARCHLIGHT  79 

address  I  was  introduced  to  the  superin- 
tendent of  the  railroad  that  runs  over  the 
Switzerland  trail.  He  said :  "I  understand 
your  wife  is  here,  and  I  will  be  pleased  to 
have  you  and  Mrs.  Bain  as  my  guests  to- 
morrow." I  knew  that  meant  a  free  ride 
and  I  accepted.  The  next  morning  we 
were  at  the  station  at  the  appointed  hour 
and  after  a  wonderful  ride  mid  scenic 
grandeur  up  to  where  eagles  nest,  and 
blizzards  hatch  out  their  young,  our  host 
said :  "I  want  you  to  have  the  most  thrill- 
ing ride  you  ever  had,  and  at  the  next 
station  be  ready  to  leave  the  train."  As 
the  brakes  gripped  the  wheels,  and  the 
train  rested  on  the  eye-brow  of  the  moun- 
tain height,  we  stepped  off.  A  hand  car 
was  taken  from  the  baggage  car  and  the 
train  moved  on  up  the  trail.  While  Mrs. 
Bain  was  captivated  by  the  mountains,  I 
was  looking  at  that  hand  car,  without 
any  handles  on  it,  a  flat  truck  with  four 
wheels.  The  superintendent  said:  "Will 
you  help  me  lift  this  on  to  the  track?"  I 
said :  "Yes,  but  what  are  you  going  to  do 
with  it?"  When  he  said:  "Going  down 
the  mountain  to  where  we  came  from,"  I 
said,  "What  will  we  hold  to?"  "To  each 
other,"  he  replied,  and  I  could  see  he  was 


80  POPULAR  LECTURES. 

enjoying  Mrs.  Bain's  placidness  and  my 
apprehension  of  trouble  ahead. 

Determined  to  sustain  Kentucky's  repu- 
tation for  courage  I  said  no  more,  but 
hoped  Mrs.  Bain  would  come  to  my  relief 
since  she  knew  her  husband  was  given  to 
dizziness  when  riding  backwards  or 
swinging  round  sudden  curves.  She  said : 
"Isn't  this  a  grand  sight?"  I  said:  "Yes, 
it's  grand,  but  we  are  going  down  the 
mountain  on  this  hand  car."  "That  will 
be  fine,"  was  all  the  comfort  she  gave  me. 

Though  I  have  traveled  close  to  a  million 
miles  behind  the  iron  horse  I  cannot  ride 
backwards  on  a  railroad  train.  In  that 
respect  I  am  like  the  husband  who  when 
about  to  die  said  to  his  wife:  "I  want  to 
make  a  special  request  of  you,  and  that  is, 
see  that  I  am  buried  face  down ;  it  always 
did  make  me  sick  to  travel  backwards." 
When  a  boy  I  could  not  swing  as  could 
other  boys.  My  head  is  not  level  on  my 
shoulders.  I  have  never  crossed  the  ocean 
and  never  will.  I  cannot  ride  the  rolling 
waves.  Some  years  ago  when  out  on  a 
little  coast  ride  for  pleasure,  (if  that's 
what  you  call  it)  I  said  to  the  captain: 
"How  long  till  we  reach  the  shore  ?"  When 
he  answered  forty  minutes,  I  felt  I 


A  SEARCHLIGHT.  81 

couldn't  live  that  long.  But  I  did,  and 
when  the  boat  touched  the  wharf  I  felt 
as  the  old  lady  did  who  landed  from  her 
first  ocean  trip  saying:  "Thank  the  Lord, 
I'm  on  vice-versa  again." 

When  Mrs.  Bain  had  seated  herself  on 
one  side  of  that  hand  car  I  fixed  myself 
on  the  other,  gripping  the  edge  of  the  car. 
Oft  went  the  brake  and  we  started.  In  a 
few  minutes  I  said  to  myself:  "Farewell 
vain  world,  I'm  going  home."  As  we  ran 
along  the  wrinkle  of  the  mountain,  and 
swung  out  toward  the  point  of  a  crag 
with  seemingly  no  way  to  dodge  the 
mighty  abyss  below,  I  was  reminded  of 
the  preacher's  mistake,  when  in  closing  a 
meeting  with  the  benediction  he  said:  To 
Thy  name  be  ascribed  all  the  praises 
in  the  world  with  the  end  out."  Around 
frost-filed  mountain  crags,  over  spider 
bridges,  through  sunless  gorges,  we  went 
down  that  mountain  like  an  eagle  swoop- 
ing from  a  storm.  When  we  reached 
Boulder,  Mrs.  Bain  jumped  from  the  car 
like  a  school-girl  and  while  she  was  thank- 
ing our  host,  I  was  thanking  kind  Provi- 
dence that  we  were  back  in  Boulder.  On 
our  way  to  the  hotel  I  said:  "Were  you 
not  frightened  when  we  started  down 


82  POPULAR  LECTURES. 

that  mountain?"  "Why  not  at  all,"  Mrs, 
Bain  replied;  "I  knew  the  superintendent 
would  not  invite  us  to  take  the  ride  unless 
it  was  safe." 

I  said:  "Well,  you  had  more  confidence 
in  him  than  you  have  in  me.  When  I  call 
at  the  door  with  a  new  horse  in  the  car- 
riage or  phaeton,  you  won't  get  in  until 
you  know  all  about  the  horse." 

"Yes,"  she  said,  "but  I  know  you." 

I  do  not  regret  having  had  that  thrill- 
ing experience,  but  I  do  feel  by  that  hand 
car  ride,  as  the  Dutchman  felt  about  his 
twin  babies.  He  said:  "I  wouldn't  take 
ten  thousand  dollars  for  dot  pair  of  twins, 
and  I  wouldn't  give  ten  cents  for  another 
pair." 

That  evening  I  gave  my  last  lecture  at 
Boulder  and  in  closing  said:  "I  suppose 
you  who  live  mid  these  mines  would  like 
to  know  how  I  stand  on  the  money  ques- 
tion." They  cheered,  showing  their  desire 
to  know  my  views  on  the  then  popular 
question,  and  I  proceeded  to  dodge  by  say- 
ing :  "Last  evening  I  stood  on  yonder  ver- 
anda watching  the  sun  as  it  went  down 
over  the  mountain's  brow,  leaving  its 
golden  slipper  on  Flag  Staff  Peak.  Colo- 
rado clouds,  shell-tinted  by  the  golden 


A  SEARCHLIGHT.  83 

glory  of  the  setting  sun,  were  hanging  as 
rich  embroideries  upon  the  blue  tapestry 
of  the  sky,  and  soon  the  full  moon  began 
to  pour  its  silver  on  the  scene.  As  I  stood 
gazing  at  the  picture  painted  by  the  gold 
of  the  sun,  and  silver  of  the  moon,  I  felt 
whatever  may  have  been  my  views  on  the 
money  question,  the  sun's  gold-standard 
glory,  and  the  moon's  free-silver  coinage, 
as  seen  from  these  Colorado  Chautauqua 
grounds  make  me  henceforth  a  Boulder 
bi-metalist." 

On  leaving  the  platform  an  old  miner 
said:  "How  do  you  stand  on  the  money 
question?  You  got  your  views  so  mixed 
up  with  the  sun  and  moon  I  couldn't  un- 
derstand you." 

So  if  some  one  should  say  to  me:  "Do 
you  believe  in  imperialism  of  humanity:" 
If  asked :  "Do  you  believe  in  expansion," 
my  answer  is ;  "I  believe  in  the  expansion 
of  human  brotherhood."  "I  believe  there's 
a  destiny  that  shapes  our  ends,"  and  since 
the  Philippine  Islands  were  pitched  into 
our  lap  in  a  night,  it  may  be  it  was  done 
that  the  home,  the  church  and  the  school 
might  have  a  chance  under  civil  liberty  in 
the  Philippine  Islands.  With  boundless 
resources  and  immense  means,  are  linked 


84  POPULAR  LECTURES. 

great  responsibilities,  and  we  who  live  in 
freedom's  land,  and  humanity's  century, 
are  under  obligations  to  help  carry  the 
light  of  Christian  civilization  to  the  dark- 
est corners  of  the  earth. 

Along  with  the  Christian  missionary 
goes  that  other  "pathfinder  of  civiliza- 
tion," the  commercial  traveler,  who  is 
known  as  the  "evangel  of  peaceful  ex- 
change" that  makes  the  whole  world  kin. 
When  the  Filipinos  are  fit  for  self-govern- 
ment, let  us  do  as  we  did  Cuba,  make 
them  as  free  as  the  air  they  breathe,  but 
keep  the  key  to  Manila  Bay  as  our  door- 
way to  the  Orient;  for  whatever  may  be 
said  of  the  old  "Joss  House"  kingdom  with 
all  her  superstitions,  she  possesses  today 
the  "greatest  combination  of  natural  con- 
ditions for  industrial  activity  of  any  un- 
developed part  of  the  globe."  By  building 
the  Suez  Canal  England  secured  an  ad- 
vantage of  three  thousand  miles,  in  her 
oriental  trade  over  the  United  States.  The 
Panama  Canal  wipes  out  this  advantage 
and  places  the  trade  of  New  York  a  thou- 
sand miles  nearer  than  that  of  Liverpool. 

Now  let  the  United  States  build  her  own 
merchant  marine,  then  with  her  own 
ships,  loaded  with  her  own  goods,  in  her 


A  SEARCHLIGHT.  85 

own  harbor  at  Manila,  she  has  easy  ac- 
cess to  the  Orient,  with  its  seven  hundred 
and  fifty  millions  of  people,  who  purchased 
last  year  more  than  a  billion  and  a  half 
dollars  worth  of  the  kind  of  goods  we 
have  to  sell,  and  much  of  it  cotton  goods, 
which  means  future  employment  for  the 
growing  millions  of  negroes  in  the  South. 
While  it  may  be  best  to  confine  our  terri- 
torial domain  within  our  ocean  ditches, 
we  must  encourage  commercial  expansion, 
for  we  have  already  one  hundred  millions 
of  people ;  soon  we  will  have  one  hundred 
and  fifty  millions,  and  experts  tell  us 
when  the  present  century  closes  there  will 
be  three  hundred  millions  in  this  country. 
If  this  republic  would  build  for  the  future 
she  must  strive  to  create  a  world-wide 
business  fraternity,  through  which  will 
go  and  grow  the  spirit  of  the  noblest  civi- 
lization of  the  world. 

Another  swing  of  the  searchlight  and  it 
falls  upon  The  Labor  and  Capital  Ques- 
tion. 

After  all  the  years  of  education,  agita- 
tion and  legislation,  we  find  capital  com- 
bining in  great  corporations  on  one  hand, 
and  labor  organizing  in  great  trade  unions 
on  the  other.  Like  two  great  armies  they 


86  POPULAR  LECTURES. 

face  each  other,  both  determined  to  win. 
While  capital  is  expanding  on  one  side, 
the  wants  of  the  laboring  classes  are  ex- 
panding on  the  other.  They  see  excursion 
trains  bound  for  world's  fairs ;  they  want 
to  go.  They  see  stores  crowded  with  the 
necessaries  and  luxuries  of  life ;  they  want 
a  share.  They  live  in  days  of  startling 
pronouncements,  they  can  read,  they  want 
the  morning  papers.  They  live  in  a  larg- 
er world,  and  knowing  their  brains  and 
brawn  helped  to  create  the  larger  world 
they  feel  they  deserve  a  larger  share  in 
its  fortunes.  When  they  see  avenues  lined 
with  the  mansion  homes  of  capital,  and 
the  toiling  world  crowded  into  tenement 
quarters,  and  these  tenements  owned  by 
capital,  not  five  in  fifty  of  the  country's 
wage-earners  owning  their  homes,  they 
naturally  conclude  there  is  something 
wrong  somewhere. 

Over  an  inn  in  Ireland  hangs  a  picture 
representing  the  "FOUR  ALLS;"  a  king 
with  a  scepter  in  his  hand  saying,  "I  rule 
all;"  a  soldier  with  a  sword  in  his  hand 
saying,  "I  fight  for  all;"  a  bishop  with  a 
Bible  in  his  hand  saying,  "I  pray  for  all," 
and  a  working  man  with  a  shovel  in  his 
hand  saying,  "I  pay  for  all." 


A  SEARCHLIGHT.  87 

'•'God  bless  them,  for  their  brawny  hands 
Have  built  the  glory  of  all  lands; 
And  richer  are  their  drops  of  sweat, 
Than  diamonds  in  a  coronet." 

I  must  say,  however,  all  the  fault  for 
present  conditions  must  not  be  charged  to 
capital.  There  are  faults  within  I  wish 
the  laboring  world  would  see  and  correct. 
I  travel  the  country  over  and  note  the 
men  who  file  in  and  out  the  saloons.  Are 
they  bankers  or  leading  business  men? 
No,  they  are  laborers  from  factories,  fur- 
naces, fields  and  work-shops,  spending 
their  money  for  what  is  worse  than  noth- 
ing and  giving  it  to  a  business  that  pays 
labor  less  and  robs  more  than  any  other 
capitalization  in  the  world. 

The  New  York  Sun  says:  "Every  suc- 
cessful man  in  Wall  Street  is  a  to- 
tal abstainer.  He  knows  he  must  keep 
his  brain  free  from  alcohol  when  he  en- 
ters the  Stock  Exchange,  where  his  mind 
goes  like  a  driving  wheel  from  which  the 
belt  has  slipped."  The  laboring  man 
needs  brain  as  clear  and  nerves  as  steady 
as  the  capitalist  if  he  expects  to  win  in 
this  age  of  sharp  competition. 

What  the  laboring  classes  in  this  coun- 


88  POPULAR  LECTURES. 

try  spend  for  liquor  in  twelve  months 
would  purchase  five  hundred  of  the  aver- 
age manufactories  of  the  land ;  what  they 
spend  in  ten  years  would  purchase  five 
thousand,  and  what  they  spend  in  twenty 
years  would  control  the  entire  manufac- 
turing interests  of  the  country. 

A  few  years  ago  a  strike  occurred  with 
the  Pullman  Palace  Car  Company.  What 
the  laboring  classes  spend  for  intoxicating 
liquors  in  three  months  would  purchase 
the  Pullman  Palace  Car  Company  and  all 
its  rolling  stock.  Instead  of  a  strike,  in 
which  laboring  men  are  out  of  work  and 
families  suffering  for  the  necessaries  of 
life,  why  not  stop  drinking  beer  and  whis- 
key for  ninety  days,  buy  the  whole  busi- 
iness  and  let  the  Pullman  Company  do 
something  else.  How  to  husband  the  re- 
sources of  the  poor  is  far  more  important 
than  the  right  use  of  the  fortunes  of  the 
rich.  There  is  less  danger  in  the  massing 
of  money  by  the  rich  than  there  is  in 
wasting  the  wages  of  the  working  world 
in  saloons. 

Now  I  have  already  thrown  the  search- 
light upon  enough  problems  for  you  to 
realize  I  have  given  you  an  incongruous 
picture.  You  must  be  impressed  with  the 


A  SEARCHLIGHT.  89 

conflicting  forces  at  work  upon  our  repub- 
lic. Never  have  we  had  so  many  advo- 
cates of  peaceful  arbitration  for  differ- 
ences between  nations  and  never  such  ar- 
mament for  war;  never  such  an  accumu- 
lation of  comforts,  never  such  a  multipli- 
cation of  wants;  never  so  much  done  to 
make  men  honest,  never  so  many  thieves. 
In  1850  seven  thousand  in  our  peniten- 
tiaries ;  in  1860  twenty  thousand ;  in  1870 
thirty-two  thousand;  in  1880  fifty-eight 
thousand;  in  1890  eighty-two  thousand, 
and  in  1900  one  hundred  thousand.  In 
London,  England,  last  year  with  over  sev- 
en millions  of  people,  twenty-four  mur- 
ders; in  Chicago,  one  hundred  and  eigh- 
teen. There  are  more  murders  in  this  re- 
public than  in  any  civilized  land  beneath 
the  sky.  Yet  in  face  of  all  these  unsettled 
questions,  with  advancement  along  all  so- 
cial, moral,  intellectual  and  religious  lines 
I  have  faith  to  believe  this  twentieth  cen- 
tury American  citizenship  will  prove  it- 
self sufficiently  thoughtful,  testful  and 
tactful  to  deal  with  all  national  issues  as 
one  by  one  they  come  within  reach  of 
practical  politics,  and  that  this  country  is 
big  enough,  brave  enough,  wise  enough 
and  just  enough  to  solve  every  problem 
vexing  us  today. 


90  POPULAR  LECTURES. 

Some  have  not  this  faith.  They  see  an 
army  of  three  hundred  thousand  tramps 
eating  bread  by  the  sweat  of  other  men's 
brows;  the  slums  of  great  cities,  cradles 
of  infamy  where  children  are  trained  to 
sin ;  the  "fire-damp  of  combination  trusts" 
stifling  the  working  world;  gambling 
brokers  cornering  the  markets  in  the  nec- 
essaries of  life;  the  wages  of  working 
girls  being  such  as  to  lead  many  from 
life's  Eden  of  purity;  a  great  battle  on 
between  labor  and  capital  and  in  this  com- 
bination of  threatening  dangers  they  see 
the  overthrow  of  free  government. 

If  these  pessimists  would  take  a  view 
from  the  nether  standpoint  and  see  what 
we  have  come  through  as  a  country  their 
fears  would  be  dispelled. 

Look  backward  fifty  years  from  today 
and  see  the  republic  wrapped  in  the 
throes  of  civil  strife ;  the  soil  of  our  South- 
land soaked  with  blood  and  tears;  the  na- 
tion overwhelmed  with  debt;  four  million 
negroes  turned  loose  penniless  in  the 
South  to  beg  bread  at  the  white  man's 
door,  and  he  already  on  "Poverty  Row ;" 
Abraham  Lincoln  dead  in  the  White 
House,  shot  down  by  an  assassin ;  the  Sec- 
retary of  War  bleeding  from  three  stab 


A  SEARCHLIGHT.  91 

wounds  the  same  night;  and  Columbia 
reeling  on  her  throne. 

Now  see  the  harmonious  association  of 
all  sections ;  a  firmer  establishment  of  this 
"government  of  the  people,  by  the  poop]  3 
and  for  the  people"  than  was  ever  known. 
Look  over  the  ocean  and  see  Turkey's 
massacre  of  the  Armenians,  Russia  with 
her  Siberian  horrors,  Spain  with  her 
cruelty  to  the  Moors  and  Jews;  or  look 
closer  home  over  the  Mexican  border  and 
see  the  government  torn  to  tatters  and 
public  men  shot  down  like  dogs.  Then 
turn  and  note  our  country's  magnanimous 
dealings  with  Cuba;  her  teachers  school- 
ing Filipinos  into  nobler  life;  our  Presi- 
dent leading  the  armies  of  Russia  and 
Japan  out  of  the  rivers  of  blood ;  slavery 
gone,  lottery  gone,  polygamy  outlawed, 
the  saloon  iniquity  tottering  to  its  fall; 
hospitals  nestled  in  shadows  of  bereave- 
ment, hungry  children  fed  on  their  way 
to  school,  and  men  who  know  how  to  make 
money,  giving  it  away  for  the  relief  of 
suffering  and  uplift  of  mankind  as  never 
before.  Don't  tell  me  the  world  is  getting 
worse. 

I  was  in  New  York  City  for  two  weeks 
at  the  time  of  the  Titanic  disaster.  On 


92  POPULAR  LECTURES. 

Saturday  evening  before  the  ocean  trag- 
edy I  stood  on  the  elevated  at  the  corner 
of  Thirty-third  and  Broadway.  The  "Great 
White  Way"  was  thronged  with  pleasure- 
seekers,  crowding  their  way  to  theatres 
and  picture  shows.  It  seemed  to  me  I 
never  saw  the  great  city  so  gay.  But,  on 
Monday  morning  after,  there  came  on 
ether  waves  the  appalling  news  that  the 
finest  ship  in  the  world  had  gone  down, 
and  sixteen  hundred  human  beings  had 
gone  with  it.  I  never  witnessed  such  a 
transformation.  It  seemed  to  me  every 
woman  had  tears  in  her  eyes,  and  every 
man  a  lump  in  his  throat.  Actors  played 
to  empty  houses  that  evening;  a  pall 
hung  over  the  great  Metropolis.  But  when 
details  came,  with  them  came  the  triumph 
of  humanity.  The  rich  had  died  for  th^ 
poor,  the  strong  had  died  for  the  weak. 

John  Jacob  Astor  had  turned  away  from 
his  fine  mansion  on  Fifth  Avenue,  his 
summer  home  at  Newport,  his  hundred 
millions  of  dollars  in  wealth,  and  was 
found  spending  his  last  moments  saving 
women  and  children.  All  honor  to  the 
brave  young  bridegroom  who  carried  his 
bride  to  a  life  boat,  said,  "good-bye 
sweetheart,"  kissed  her  and  stepping 


A  SEARCHLIGHT.  93 

back  went  down  with  the  ship.  All  hail 
to  that  loyal  loving  Hebrew  wife  and 
mother,  Mrs.  Straus,  who  holding  to  her 
husband's  arm  said:  "I  would  rather  die 
with  you  than  live  without  you."  Like 
Ruth  of  old,  she  said :  "Where  thou  goest, 
I  will  go ;  where  thou  diest  I  will  die,  and 
there  will  I  be  buried."  There  side  by 
side  at  the  ocean  gateway  to  eternity  these 
old  lovers  went  down  together. 

Ah!  this  republic  will  never  perish 
while  we  have  such  manhood  and  woman- 
hood to  live  and  die  for  its  honor. 

It  has  been  said :  "We  live  in  a  material- 
istic age;  that  all  human  activities  are 
born  of  selfishness ;  that  manhood  is  dying 
out  of  the  world."  All  over  the  land  at 
midnight,  men  lean  from  the  saddles  of 
iron  horses,  peering  down  the  railroad 
track,  ready  to  die  if  need  be  for  the  safe- 
ty of  those  entrusted  to  their  care.  Fire- 
men will  climb  ladders  tonight  and  their 
souls  will  go  up  in  flames,  like  Jim  Blud- 
soe's,  to  save  the  lives  of  imperiled  wo- 
men and  children. 

Look  at  the  orchestra  on  board  the  Ti- 
tanic. When  the  supreme  moment  of  dan- 
ger came,  they  rushed  to  the  deck,  not  to 
put  on  life  belts,  not  to  get  into  lifeboats 


94  POPULAR  LECTURES. 

but  to  form  in  order,  and  send  out  over 
the  icy  ocean,  the  music  of  the  sweet  song, 
"Nearer,  my  God,  to  Thee."  When  the 
ship  lifted  at  one  end  and  started  on  its 
headlong  dive  of  twenty-seven  hundred 
fathoms  to  the  depths  of  the  salty  sea, 
those  brave  men,  without  a  discordant 
note,  sent  out  the  sweet  refrain; 

"Now  let  the  way  appear 
Steps  unto  Heaven; 
All  that  Thou  sendest  me, 
In  mercy  given ; 
Angels  to  beckon  me, 
Nearer,  my  God  to  thee; 
Nearer  to  Thee." 

May  we  not  hope  those  brave  musicians 
and  those  who  died  that  others  might  live, 
•'On  joyful  wings  cleaving  the  sky,"  ocean 
and  icebergs  forgot  did  upward  fly,  and 
on  their  flight  to  the  spirit  world  contin- 
ued the  song,  "Nearer,  my  God,  to  Thee." 

Manhood  is  not  dying  out  of  the  world. 

Students  of  history  are  asking,  "Will 
the  fate  of  Rome  be  repeated  in  the  his- 
tory of  this  republic  ?"  The  answer  is,  we 
have  saving  influences  in  this  republic 
Rome  never  knew.  Rome  never  had  an 
asylum  for  her  blind  or  insane;  she  nev- 


A  SEARCHLIGHT.  95 

er  had  a  home  for  widows  and  orphans; 
her  "golden  house"  of  Nero  never  had  an 
equal,  but  nowhere  in  her  dusty  highways 
could  be  found  footprints  of  mercy.  In 
Rome  the  soldier  was  the  cohesive  power, 
while  socially  everything  was  isolated.  In 
this  republic  there  is  an  interlacing  and 
binding  together  in  bonds  of  humaji  broth- 
erhood. A  Methodist  here  bound  to  Meth- 
odists everywhere,  Presbyterian  to  Pres- 
byterian, Baptist  to  Baptist,  Disciple  to 
Disciple,  Lutheran  to  Lutheran,  Catholic 
to  Catholic,  Masons,  Odd  Fellows,  Knights 
of  Pythias,  Red  Men,  Maccabees,  Wood- 
men, Christian  Endeavor  Societies,  Ep- 
worth  Leagues,  Y.  M.  C.  A.'s,  W.  C.  T. 
U.'s,  and  many  other  fraternities,  making 
up  an  interdependent,  together- woven, 
God-allied  and  God-saving  influence  an- 
cient empires  never  dreamt  of.  These  are 
the  moral  lightning  rods  that  avert  from 
this  republic  the  wrath  of  God. 

Am  I  putting  too  much  stress  upon  the 
humanity  side  of  national  life?  Do  you 
tell  me  money  is  the  great  question  of  this 
country,  tariff  the  great  question  ?  Bring 
me  the  Bible  and  what  do  I  find?  Only  a 
very  few  pages  given  to  the  creation  of 
the  material  universe,  with  all  its  gold 


96  POPULAR  LECTURES. 

and  silver,  suns  and  systems,  but  I  find 
page  after  page,  chapter  after  chapter, 
and  book  after  book,  given  to  the  healing 
of  the  lame,  the  halt  and  the  blind,  teach- 
ing a  kindred  spirit  of  sympathy  to  meet 
the  common  woes  of  humanity. 

What  I  am  about  to  say  may  seem  more 
like  sermon  than  lecture,  but  I  believe  it 
will  be  the  best  thing  I  have  said  when  the 
lecture  closes.  In  the  formula  of  human 
touch,  laid  down  in  the  life  of  Jesus  of 
Nazareth,  there  is  more  saving  influence 
for  national  endurance  than  in  all  the 
wealth  of  our  country's  treasury. 

From  the  time  His  beautiful  mother 
wrapped  Him  in  coarse  linen,  and  cradled 
Him  on  cattle  straw  in  that  Bethlehem 
barn,  on  up  to  His  death  on  the  cross,  He 
was  ever  touching  the  masses,  healing 
their  diseases,  soothing  their  sorrows  and 
teaching  the  lesson,  "the  more  humanity 
you  place  at  the  bottom  the  better  citizen- 
ship you  will  have  at  the  top."  In  the 
golden  rule  of  this  human  touch  liea  the 
hope  of  this  home  of  the  free. 

A  little  boy  boarded  a  car  in  New  York 
City.  A  few  feet  from  him  sat  a  finely- 
dressed  lady  and  as  the  boy  stared  at  her, 


A  SEARCHLIGHT.  97 

he  moved  nearer  and  nearer  until  he  was 
close  beside  her. 

"What  do  you  mean  by  getting  so  close 
to  me?  Don't  you  see  you  have  put  mud 
on  my  dress  from  your  shoes?  Move 
away,"  said  the  lady. 

The  little  urchin  replied :  "I'm  so  sorry 
I  got  mud  on  your  dress;  I  didn't  mean 
to  do  it." 

"Where  are  you  going,  all  by  your  little 
self,  anyway?" 

"I'm  going  to  my  aunt's  where  I  live." 

"Have  you  no  mother?" 

"No  mam ;  she  died  four  weeks  ago.  I 
ain't  got  any  mother  now,  and  that's  why 
I  was  settin'  up  close  to  you  to  make  be- 
lieve you  wuz  my  mother.  I'm  sorry  'bout 
the  mud,  you'll  'scuse  me,  won't  you,  rood 
lady?" 

The  woman  extending  her  hand  said: 
"Yes  I  will ;  come  here,"  and  soon  her  arm 
was  about  him,  tears  in  her  eyes,  and 
the  boy  could  have  wiped  his  feet  on  any 
dress  in  that  car  without  rebuke.  We 
want  more  of  human  touch  in  national 
and  individual  life. 

A  tramp  called  at  a  fine  home  for  his 
supper.  The  owner  said:  "You  can  have 


98  POPULAR  LECTURES. 

something  to  eat  provided  you  do  some 
work  beforehand." 

"What  can  I  do,"  asked  the  "hobo." 
A  set  of  harness  was  given  him  to  clean. 
The  gentleman  went  to  his  supper,  and 
soon  after  a  blue-eyed,  golden-haired  girl 
of  four  years  came  out,  and  approaching 
the  tramp,  said:  "Good  evening,  sir.  Is 
you  got  a  little  girl  like  me  ?" 

"No,  I  am  all  alone  in  the  world." 
"Ain't  you  got  no  mama  and  papa?" 
"No,  they  died  a  long  time  ago,"  and 
the  tramp  wiped  away  a  tear  as  memory 
came  rolling  up  from  out  the  hallowed 
past. 

"Oh !  Fm  so  sorry  for  you,  'cause  I  have 
a  home  and  papa  and  mama." 

The  man  of  the  house  came  out,  and 
looking  at  the  harness  said:  "That's  a 
good  job;  you  must  have  done  that  work 
before.  Come  in  and  you  shall  have  a 
good  supper." 

The  little  tot  ran  around  to  the  front 
gate,  where  a  pair  of  horses,  hitched  to  a 
carriage,  waited  to  take  the  family  on  a 
drive.  The  tramp  finished  his  supper  and 
passing  out,  the  little  one  in  the  carriage 
said :  "Good-bye,  mister.  When  you  want 
supper  again  you  come  and  see  us,  won't 


A  SEARCHLIGHT.  99 

you ;"  and  turning  to  the  driver  she  said : 
"He  ain't  got  no  papa,  nor  mama,  no  lit- 
tle girl  and  no  home." 

The  tramp,  who  heard  these  words 
taking  off  his  old  hat  bowed  low  to  the 
little  one  who  had  spoken  the  kind  words. 

A  few  minutes  later  while  standing  on  a 
street  corner,  wondering  where  he  could 
spend  the  night,  some  one  shouted,  "Hors- 
es running  away!"  The  driver  had  left 
the  team  and  the  horses  started  with  the 
little  girl  alone  in  the  carriage,  screaming 
for  help.  Men  ran  out  but  the  mad  horses 
cleared  the  track.  The  tramp  fixed  him- 
self, and  as  the  team  swept  by,  he  gave  a 
bound  and  caught  the  bit  of  the  nearest 
horse.  The  horses  reared  and  plunged 
but  the  tramp  held  on,  until  he  swerved 
them  to  the  sidewalk.  As  the  near  horse 
struck  the  curb  he  fell  and  the  tramp  was 
crushed  beneath  the  horse.  A  physician 
came  and  as  he  bent  over  to  examine  the 
heart,  the  tramp  said :  "Was  the  little  one 
saved?" 

The  child  was  brought  and  as  her  sweet 
blue  eyes  tenderly  looked  at  the  face  of 
the  dying  man  he  smiled,  and  then  the 
spirit  took  its  flight,  to  where  He  who 
died  to  save  the  world,  looked  with  com- 


100         POPULAR  LECTURES. 

passion  upon  the  tramp  who  gave  his  life 
for  "one  of  these  little  ones." 

Oh,  the  beauty  and  power  of  human 
touch ! 

The  Panama  Canal  is  considered  the 
glory  crowning  achievement  of  this  cen- 
tury; but  the  building  of  a  highway  of 
sympathy  over  which  to  send  help  to  the 
hopeless  is  a  far  greater  achievement.  If 
this  republic  is  to  endure  with  the  stars; 
if  it  is  to  go  down  the  ages  like  a  broaden- 
ing colonade  of  light,  and  stand  in  steady 
splendor  at  the  height  of  the  world's  civ- 
ilization; it  will  not  be  because  of  its 
money  standard,  its  tariff  or  expansion 
policy,  but  because  the  heart-beat  of  hu- 
man brotherhood  sends  the  blood  of  a  com- 
mon father  bounding  through  the  veins 
of  the  concentrated  whole  of  humanity, 
binding  high  and  low,  rich  and  poor,  weak 
and  strong  together. 

"Work  brothers ;  sisters  work ;  work  hand 

and  brain, 

We'll  win  the  golden  age  again; 
And  love's  millennial  morn  shall  rise 
In  happy  hearts  and  blessed  eyes. 
We  will,  we  will,  brave  champions  be 
In  this  the  lordlier  chivalry." 


Ill 

OUR  COUNTRY,  OUR  HOMES  AND 

OUR  DUTY.  A  PLEA  FOR  THE 

HOME  AGAINST  THE  SALOON. 

The  sweetest  word  in  the  language  we 
speak  is  home.  No  matter  in  what  clime 
or  country,  whether  where  sunbeams 
dance  and  play  or  frost  fiend  rules  the  air, 
there's  no  place  like  home.  At  the  World's 
Fair  in  Chicago  I  visited  the  Eskimo  vil- 
lage. To  a  woman  who  could  speak  Eng- 
lish I  said:  "How  do  you  like  this  coun- 
try?" 

"Beautiful,  beautiful  country.  Oh,  the 
flowers,  the  green  grass,  the  lovely 
homes!"  was  her  reply. 

But  when  I  ventured  to  ask:  "Will  you 
remain  here  after  the  fair  and  not  return 
to  your  land  of  ice  and  snow,"  she  shook 
her  head  and  said:  "No,  I  want  to  go 
home.  I  am  so  homesick." 

"Be  it  ever  so  humble,  there's  no  place 
like  home."  In  Lexington,  Kentucky, 
101 


102         POPULAR  LECTURES. 

there  is  a  modest  looking  house,  nestled 
mid  linden  and  locust  trees.  Visitors  who 
pass  in  quest  of  historic  spots  about  the 
far-famed  city,  seldom  give  even  a  glance 
at  that  humble  abode.  Yet  when  I  am  far 
away,  whether  in  the  wonderful  west  with 
its  scenic  grandeur,  or  in  the  east  sur- 
rounded by  mansions  of  millionaires,  my 
heart  goes  back  in  memory's  aeroplane  to 
the  old  Blue  Grass  town,  where  six  gen- 
erations of  my  family  sleep,  the  dearest 
spot  on  earth  to  me — "home,  sweet  home." 
When  years  ago  I  was  nearing  the  end  of 
a  three  months'  lecture  tour  in  California, 
a  friend  invited  me  to  join  him  on  a  visit 
to  Yosemite  Valley,  saying :  "You  will  see 
the  grandest  scenery  and  biggest  trees  in 
the  world."  My  reply  was :  "I  thank  you 
very  touch,  but  my  engagements  in  the 
golden  west  close  on  the  eighth  and  I  will 
start  east  on  the  ninth ;  my  old  Kentucky 
home  is  grander  to  me  than  Yosemite  Val- 
ley and  my  baby  bigger  than  any  tree  in 
California." 

Someone  has  said  the  nearest  spot  to 
heaven  in  this  world  is  a  happy  home, 
where  the  parents  are  young  and  the  chil- 
dren small.  I  don't  know  about  that.  It 
seems  to  me  a  little  nearer  heaven  is  the 


OUR  COUNTRY  103 

home  where  husband  and  wife  have  lived 
long  together,  where  children  honor  par- 
ents and  parents  honor  God;  where  the 
aged  wife  can  look  her  husband  in  the  face 
and  give  him  the  sentiment  of  the  dame 
of  John  Anderson: 

"John  Anderson,  my  jo  John, 

When  we  were  first  acquent ; 
Your  locks  were  like  the  raven, 

Your  bonnie  brow  was  brent ; 
But  now  your  brow  is  beld,  John, 

Your  locks  are  like  the  snaw; 
But  blessings  on  your  frosty  pow, 

John  Anderson,  my  jo. 

"John  Anderson,  my  jo,  John, 

We  ciamb  the  hill  thegither ; 
And  mony  a  cantie  day,  John, 

We've  had  wi'  one  anither : 
Now  we  maun  totter  down,  John, 

And  hand  in  hand  we'll  go, 
And  sleep  thegither  at  the  foot, 

John  Anderson,  my  jo." 

James  A.  Garfield  said:  "It's  by  the 
fireside,  where  calm  thoughts  inspired  by 
love  of  home  and  love  of  country,  the  his- 
tory of  the  past,  the  hope  of  the  future, 
God  works  out  the  destiny  of  this  repub- 
lic." 


104         POPULAR  LECTURES. 

A  Spartan  general  pointing  to  his  ar- 
my said :  "There  stand  the  walls  of  Spar- 
ta and  every  man's  a  brick."  Can  I  not 
point  to  the  homes  of  our  country  and  say : 
"There  stand  the  walls  of  this  republic 
and  every  home's  a  brick."  Suppose  a 
battery,  planted  on  some  eminence  outside 
this  city,  were  to  send  a  shell  through 
some  building  every  hour ;  how  long  until 
your  beautiful  city  would  be  one  of 
crumbling  walls  and  flying  population? 
On  yonder  heights  of  law  are  planted  two 
hundred  thousand  rum  batteries,  sending 
shells  of  destruction  through  the  homes  of 
the  people  and  every  day  hundreds  of 
homes  are  knocked  out  of  the  walls  of  the 
republic. 

Do  you  realize  what  it  means  when  an 
American  home  is  destroyed  by  drink? 
Some  years  ago  on  Sunday  afternoon  I 
visited  an  eastern  penitentiary  by  invita- 
tion of  the  chaplain.  Passing  a  row  of 
cells  my  attention  was  called  to  a  man 
whose  face  bore  the  marks  of  intelligence 
and  refinement.  The  chaplain  said :  "That 
man  is  an  ideal  prisoner  and  a  born  gen- 
tleman, though  here  for  life.  He  is  the 
graduate  of  an  eastern  college.  He  mar- 
ried an  accomplished  young  woman.  In 


OUR  COUNTRY  105 

social  life  he  was  led  into  the  drink  habit, 
and  it  grew  upon  him  until  at  times  he 
became  intoxicated.  When  under  the  in- 
fluence of  liquor  his  reason  was  dethron- 
ed, and  one  night  in  a  brawl  he  killed  a 
man.  He  was  given  a  life  sentence.  Ask- 
ing permission  to  speak  he  said:  'I  have 
no  complaint  to  make  of  the  verdict,  but 
beg  the  privilege  of  saying,  God  who  knows 
the  secrets  of  all  hearts,  knows  I  am  not 
a  murderer  at  heart,  for  I  don't  know 
how  nor  when  I  killed  my  friend/  A  few 
days  after  he  entered  this  prison  his  wife 
came  to  visit  him.  She  had  with  her  a 
sweet  little  golden-haired  child.  As  he 
entered  the  office  in  his  striped  prison 
garb  his  wife  fell  into  his  arms ;  the  agony 
on  that  man's  face  I  can  never  forget.  The 
child  shrank  from  him  at  first,  then  recog- 
nizing her  father,  she  ran  to  him.  As  he 
hugged  her  to  his  bosom  the  little  one 
twined  her  arms  about  his  neck  and  said : 
'Papa,  please  come  home  with  us.  Mama 
cries  so  much  cause  you  don't  come  home.' 
The  man  sinking  into  a  chair  said :  '0  God, 
am  I  never  to  see  my  home  again  ?' " 

This  is  but  one  of  the  thousands  of 
homes  destroyed  every  year  by  the  drink 
curse.  If  I  could  draw  aside  the  veil  and 


106          POPULAR  LECTURES. 

let  you  look  into  the  desolate  homes  of 
your  own  city  tonight,  you  would  feel  Ex- 
Governor  Hanley  of  Indiana  did  not  give 
an  overwrought  picture  when  he  said: 
"Personally,  I  have  seen  so  much  physical 
ruin,  mental  blight  and  moral  corruption 
from  strong  drink  that  I  hate  the  traffic. 
I  hate  it  for  its  arrogance;  I  hate  it  for 
its  hypocrisy;  I  hate  it  for  its  greed  and 
avarice;  I  hate  it  for  its  domination  in 
politics ;  I  hate  it  for  its  disregard  of  law ; 
I  hate  it  for  the  load  it  straps  on  labor's 
back ;  I  hate  it  for  the  wounds  it  has  giv- 
en to  genius,  for  the  human  wrecks  it  has 
wrought,  for  the  alms-houses  it  has  peo- 
pled, for  the  prisons  it  has  filled,  for  the 
crimes  it  has  committed,  the  homes  it  has 
destroyed,  the  hearts  it  has  broken,  the 
malice  it  has  planted  in  the  hearts  of  men, 
and  the  dead  sea  fruit  with  which  it 
starves  immortal  souls."  With  proof  of 
the  cruth  of  this  phillipic  on  every  hand, 
it  is  a  strange  anomaly  in  our  government 
that  the  degrading  influence  of  the  saloon 
is  linked  by  law  to  the  elevating  influence 
of  school,  church  and  home. 

When  Jesus  was  on  earth  He  came  to  a 
fig  tree,  dressed  in  rich  leaves  but  barren 
of  fruit ;  it  was  in  fig  season  but  the  tree 


OUR  COUNTRY  107 

had  only  leaves.  We  read  that  Jesus 
cursed  the  tree  and  it  withered.  We  have 
in  this  country  a  upas  tree  named  the 
liquor  traffic.  It  is  not  a  barren  tree,  but 
far  worse  than  barren.  Its  branches  bend 
with  the  weight  of  its  fruit,  but  not  a  pint, 
nor  a  quart,  nor  gallon,  nor  barrel  from 
its  boughs  ever  benefited  a  single  mortal 
by  its  use  as  a  beverage.  Its  leaves  drip 
with  poison  and  the  bones  of  its  dead  vic- 
tims would  build  a  pyramid  as  high  as 
Appenines  piled  on  the  Alps.  Jesus  with- 
ered the  tree  that  produced  nothing.  We 
license  and  cultivate  the  tree  whose  fruit- 
age the  Bible  compares  to  the  bite  of  a 
serpent,  the  sting  of  an  adder  and  the 
poison  of  asps. 

In  the  earlier  days  of  the  temperance 
movement,  when  we  discussed  the  ques- 
tion along  moral  lines,  the  license  advo- 
cates made  it  an  economic  question,  but 
since  the  commercial  world  is  fast  becom- 
ing a  great  temperance  league,  and  great 
industries  are  blacklisting  the  saloon  as 
an  enemy  of  legitimate  business,  the  liquor 
advocates  are  taking  refuge  behind  the 
Bible,  and  claiming  that  He  who  cursed 
the  tree  that  was  barren,  planted  the  one 
whose  root  and  heart,  bark  and  branches 


108         POPULAR  LECTURES. 

are  poisoning  the  blood  of  the  nation. 
They  pervert  scripture,  take  isolated  pas- 
sages and  present  an  ominum  gatherum 
of  quotations  to  prove  the  Bible  indorses 
the  use  of  strong  drink.  By  the  same 
process  I  can  prove  one  of  these  Bible  li- 
cense scholars  should  hang  himself  and  be 
in  haste  about  it.  I  read  on  one  page  of 
the  Bible,  "Judas  went  out  and  hanged 
himself."  On  another  page  I  read,  "Go 
thou  and  do  likewise."  And  on  another, 
"Whatsoever  thou  doest,  do  it  quickly." 

Against  these  sacrilegious  uses  of 
scripture,  I  place  the  estimate  of  the  fruit 
of  this  upas  tree  from  one  whose  words 
are  unmistakable,  and  whose  wisdom  none 
can  question.  Solomon  said:  "Wine  is  a 
mocker."  Was  there  ever  a  word  of  more 
weight  in  its  application?  When  a  boy  in 
school  nothing  so  vexed  me  and  made  me 
want  to  fight,  as  for  a  boy  to  mock  me.  I 
remember  when  one  of  the  prettiest  girls 
in  school  made  faces  at  me  and  mocked 
me ;  from  that  hour  I  could  never  see  any 
beauty  in  that  girl's  face,  nor  have  I  quite 
forgiven  her  to  this  day.  When  the  Jews 
wanted  to  heap  the  greatest  indignity 
possible  upon  Jesus,  when  they  had  driven 
the  nails  in  His  hands,  pierced  His  side, 


OUR  COUNTRY  109 

placed  the  crown  of  thorns  upon  His  head 
and  pressed  the  bitter  cup  to  His  lips,  they 
stood  off  and  mocked  Him. 

Is  wine  a  mocker?  Did  Solomon  know 
what  he  was  talking  about  when  he  gave 
it  that  detestable  name?  He  added  still 
another  word  and  called  it  a  deceiver. 
Does  it  deceive  and  mock?  It  meets  a 
young  man  at  a  social  feast,  garlands  it- 
self with  the  graces  of  hospitality,  spar- 
kles in  the  brilliant  jewels  of  fashion, 
smiles  through  the  faces  of  female  beauty, 
furnishes  inspiration  for  the  dance  and 
mingles  with  music,  mirth  and  hilarity. 
Gently  it  takes  the  young  man  by  the 
hand,  leads  him  down  the  green,  flowery 
sward  of  license,  filled  with  the  rich  aroma 
of  the  wild  flowers  of  life.  When  it  has 
firmly  fixed  itself  in  his  appetite,  it  begins 
to  strip  him  of  his  manhood  as  hail  strips 
the  trees,  and  when,  with  will-power  gone, 
nerves  shattered,  eyes  bleared  and  face 
bloated,  he  stands  with  the  last  vestige  of 
manly  beauty  swept  from  the  shattered 
temple  of  the  soul,  it  stands  off  and  mocks 
him.  It  goes  to  a  home,  tramples  upon  the 
pure  unselfish  love  of  a  wife,  enthrones 
the  shadow  of  a  drunkard's  poverty  upon 
the  hearth-stone,  makes  the  empty  cup- 


110         POPULAR  LECTURES. 

board  echo  the  wail  of  hungry  children 
for  bread,  with  its  bloody  talons  marks 
the  door  lintels  with  the  death  sentence  of 
an  immortal  soul,  and  then  stands  off  and 
mocks  the  home.  It  goes  to  the  Congress 
of  the  United  States  and  says :  "Put  upon 
me  the  harness  of  taxation  and  I'll  pull 
you  out  of  the  mire  of  national  debt,  and 
make  the  administration  of  the  party  in 
power  a  financial  success."  Then  with  a 
government  permit,  it  proceeds  to  take  out 
of  the  pockets  of  the  people  five  times  as 
much  as  it  pays  the  government;  creates 
three-fourths  of  the  country's  crimes, 
four-fifths  of  its  pauperism,  sixty  per 
cent  of  its  divorces,  dooms  to  poverty  and 
shame  a  great  army  of  children,  blights 
rosebuds  of  beauty  on  cheeks  of  inno- 
cence, shatters  oaks  of  manhood,  leaves  its 
polluting  taint  upon  all  that  it  touches, 
and  then  stands  off  and  mocks  the  repub- 
lic. Was  there  ever  more  meaning  con- 
densed into  one  brief  utterance  than  in 
Solomon's  warning,  "Wine  is  a  mocker, 
strong  drink  is  raging,  and  whosoever  is 
deceived  thereby  is  not  wise?"  Is  it  wis- 
dom in  this  republic  to  deliberately,  for 
revenue,  set  in  motion  causes  that  neutra- 
lize its  progress,  waste  its  forces  and  de- 


OUR  COUNTRY  111 

stroy  the  fireside  nurseries  of  the  nation's 
destiny  ? 

If  I  were  an  artist  I  would  now  place 
before  you  a  picture  of  an  ideal  American 
home.  I  would  not  make  it  the  fine  man- 
sion on  the  avenue,  nor  would  I  make  it 
"the  old  log  cabin  in  the  lane."  I  would 
make  it  a  neat  country  home  with  garden 
of  flowers,  orchard  of  fruits,  a  barn  lot 
with  bubbling  spring  and  laughing  brook. 
In  the  door  of  this  home  I  would  place  an 
American  mother  with  the  youngest  of 
four  children  in  her  arms ;  the  oldest  son 
driving  his  tired  team  to  the  barn,  the 
second  one  the  cows  to  the  cupping,  the 
daughter  spreading  the  cloth  for  tea,  and 
the  head  of  the  house  sinking  the  iron- 
bound  bucket  in  the  well  for  a  draught  of 
cold  water  when  day's  work  for  loved  ones 
is  o'er.  Approaching  the  door  a  commis- 
sion appointed  by  Congress  on  political 
economy  lift  their  hats  as  the  spokesman 
says:  "Madam,  are  you  mistress  of  this 
mansion?" 

"I  am  the  wife  and  mother  of  this  hum- 
ble home,  gentlemen ;  the  man  at  the  well 
is  my  husband." 

"Madam,  we  are  commissioned  by  Con- 
gress to  investigate  the  home  life  of  the 


112         POPULAR  LECTURES. 

country  and  would  like  to  learn  what  this 
home  is  doing  for  the  republic." 

"Come  in,  gentlemen,  and  be  seated, 
while  I  call  my  husband.  We  feel  honor- 
ed by  your  visit  and  would  be  pleased  to 
have  you  take  tea  with  us." 

The  invitation  is  readily  accepted  and 
after  a  good  country  supper  the  investiga- 
tion proceeds.  In  answer  to  the  question 
as  to  the  relation  of  the  home  to  the  wel- 
fare of  the  republic,  the  head  of  the 
house  says :  "Gentlemen,  we  are  trying  to 
keep  our  home  pure ;  it  is  our  purpose  to 
make  our  boys  patriotic  American  citi- 
zens and  our  daughters  true  American 
women.  We  love  God  and  endeavor  to 
keep  His  commandments,  and  this  is 
about  all  I  can  say  about  our  home." 

"That  is  well  so  far,  but  may  we  ask 
what  sacrifice  would  this  home  be  willing 
to  make  for  the  republic  if  its  flag  were  in 
peril?" 

The  wife  exclaims:  "You  alarm  us  by 
your  question.  Is  our  country  in  dan- 
ger?" 

"Yes,  madam.  The  combined  forces  of 
the  Old  World  are  nearing  our  shores  and 
the  republic  is  in  peril." 

"Wait,  gentlemen,  until  we  talk  it  over." 


OUR  COUNTRY  113 

The  family  retires  for  consultation  and 
soon  the  mother  appears,  and  with  tears 
in  her  eyes  says:  "Gentlemen,  we've  de- 
cided. Take  our  oldest  boy,  who  is  eager 
to  go.  Take  him  to  the  battlefield;  if  he 
falls  in  defense  of  his  country's  flag,  come 
back,  we'll  kiss  the  second  one  and  tell 
him,  'go  fill  your  brother's  place/  Gen- 
tlemen, we  love  our  country  next  to  our 
God  and  this  home  is  pledged  to  this  coun- 
try's honor." 

I  say,  any  country  that  has  such  moth- 
ers for  its  patriotism,  such  guardians  for 
its  homes,  should  protect  these  homes  and 
mothers  with  all  the  power  of  police,  all 
the  majesty  of  law,  and  any  evil  that  at- 
tempts to  destroy  these  homes  ought  not 
to  be  licensed,  but  should  be  buried  as  the 
old  Scotch  woman  would  bury -the  devil — 
with  "face  down,  so  the  more  he  scratched 
the  deeper  he  would  go." 

I  am  sick  of  the  hollow  sentiment,  "the 
hand  that  rocks  the  cradle  rules  the  world," 
insofar  as  it  relates  to  the  drink  problem. 
If  the  hand  that  rocks  the  cradle  did  rule 
the  world,  there  would  not  be  two  hundred 
thousand  rum-fiend  vultures  soaring  over 
the  cradle  homes  of  our  country  today. 
If  a  mother  could  keep  her  boy  in  the  era- 


114         POPULAR  LECTURES. 

die  she  might  rule  the  world,  but  the  trou- 
ble is,  the  boy  gets  too  big  for  the  cradle 
1  and  jumps  out.  In  the  cradle  he's  mama's 
child,  coos  if  mama  coos,  and  laughs  when 
mama  laughs;  but  out  of  the  cradle  he's 
papa's  boy,  swears  if  papa  swears,  smokes 
if  papa  smokes,  drinks  if  papa  drinks.  If 
papa  does  none  of  these  things,  then  the 
world,  ruled  by  hands  that  don't  rock 
cradles,  steps  in  with  licensed  schools  of 
vice  to  teach  him  to  drink. 

When  General  Grant  was  President  of 
the  United  States  he  appointed  an  old 
colored  man  mail-carrier  over  a  route  in 
the  mountains  of  Virginia.  One  day, 
when  in  a  lonely  spot,  two  robbers  faced 
the  negro  and  demanded  the  mail.  The 
old  man,  lifting  himself  in  his  saddle  said : 
"Gentlemen,  I  is  de  mail-carrier  of  de 
United  States;  you  touch  dis  darkey  and 
you'll  have  de  whole  army  of  dis  govern- 
ment on  you  in  twenty  fo*  hours." 

Blessed  will  be  the  day  when  every 
mother  in  our  land  can  say  to  the  saloon : 
"You  touch  my  home  and  you'll  have  the 
police  power  of  this  republic  on  your  heels 
in  twenty-four  hours." 

But,  who  is  the  government?  We  are 
told  that  in  the  early  history  of  this  coun- 


OUR  COUNTRY  115 

try,  a  country  magistrate  rode  horseback 
from  Maryland  to  Washington  to  consult 
the  government.  Going  to  the  White 
House  he  was  informed  the  government 
was  not  there.  At  the  Capitol  he  was  in- 
formed the  people  are  the  government. 
He  returned  home,  called  the  voters  of  his 
county  to  a  meeting  in  the  courthouse  and 
said:  "Gentlemen,  I  have  a  very  impor- 
tant question  I  want  to  present  to  the  gov- 
ernment." So  I  desire  to  talk  to  the  gov- 
ernment, you  voters  who  are  to  decide  the 
policy  of  this  republic  regarding  the  liquor 
traffic. 

An  Irishman  brought  before  the  court 
for  an  assault  upon  a  saloon  keeper  was 
questioned  by  the  judge,  who  said:  "Mr. 
Dolan,  what  have  you  to  say ;  are  you  guil- 
ty or  innocent  of  the  charge  made  against 
you?" 

The  Irishman  replied:  "By  me  soul, 
judge,  I  couldn't  tell  ye.  I  was  blind,  stav- 
in*  drunk  on  the  manest  whiskey  ye  iver 
tasted,  yer  honor." 

"I  do  not  use  whiskey  of  any  kind,"  said 
the  judge. 

"Ye  don't  Thin  I  don't  think  ye  are 
doin'  yer  duty  by  such  constituents  as  me- 
self.  Ye  license  men  to  sell  the  stuff;  ye 


116         POPULAR  LECTURES. 

ought  to  taste  the  stuff  ye  license  men  to 
sell,  thin  ye  would  know  how  it  makes  a 
gintlemen  behave  himself." 

The  judge  rapped  for  order  in  the  court 
and  repeated  the  question,  "Are  you  guilty 
or  innocent  of  the  charge?" 

"Judge,  I'll  state  the  case  and  let  yer 
honor  decide  for  me,  which  ye  are  hired  to 
do  anyway.  I  was  standin'  by  the  corner 
of  the  strate  on  me  way  home  from  work, 
when  I  spied  the  bottles  in  the  window  of 
the  saloon.  The  sight  of  thim  bottles  made 
me  thirsty,  so  I  wint  in  and  took  a  drink. 
Jist  thin  three  other  thirsty  ones  came  in 
and  I  took  a  drink  with  thim;  thin  they 
took  a  drink  with  me  and  we  kept  on 
drinkin'  till  we  thought  we  were  back  in 
auld  Ireland  at  Donnybrook  Fair.  When- 
ever we  saw  a  head  we  struck  it  and  I  sup- 
pose this  gintlemin's  head  came  my  way. 
Now  here's  the  case,  judge.  If  I  hadn't 
taken  the  whiskey,  I  wouldn't  a  been  in 
the  row,  for  I'm  always  paceable  whin 
sober;  if  the  saloon  hadn't  been  there  I 
wouldn't  have  taken  the  whiskey;  and  if 
the  Court  hadn't  licensed  the  saloon  it 
wouldn't  have  been  there.  Ye  can  take 
the  case,  sir." 

What  makes  the  drunkard  ?    The  drink. 


OUR  COUNTRY  117 

What  supplies  the  drink?  The  saloon. 
What  makes  the  saloon?  The  law.  Who 
makes  the  law?  The  legislator.  Who 
makes  the  legislator?  The  voter.  It's  the 
"House  that  Jack  built,"  only  I  will  change 
the  verbage  a  little.  Intemperance  is  the 
fire  the  devil  built.  Strong  drink  is  the 
fuel  that  feeds  the  fire  the  devil  built.  Dis- 
tilleries, breweries  and  saloons  are  the 
axes  that  cut  the  fuel  that  feeds  the  fire 
the  devil  built.  License  laws  are  molds 
that  cast  the  axes,  that  cut  the  fuel  that 
feeds  the  fire  the  devil  built  License  vo- 
ters and  legislators  are  the  patentees  who 
invented  the  molds  that  cast  the  axes  that 
cut  the  fuel  that  feeds  the  fire  the  devil 
built.  Prohibition  ballots  are  the  sledge 
hammers  destined  to  destroy  the  molds 
that  cast  the  axes  that  cut  the  fuel  that 
feeds  the  fire  the  devil  built. 

There  is  a  chain  of  responsibility  run- 
ning through  the  drink  question  which 
many  good  men  fail  to  recognize.  You 
know  a  chain  is  made  up  of  links  welded 
together.  The  drunkard  is  only  one  link ; 
he  is  not  a  chain.  When  you  link  him  to 
the  drink  then  you  begin  the  chain;  tha 
drunkard  comes  from  the  drink.  That  is 
not  all  of  the  chain  however;  the  drink  is 


118         POPULAR  LECTURES. 

linked  to  the  saloon.  If  you  have  the  sa- 
loon, you  have  the  drink,  you  have  the 
drunkard.  This  is  not  all  of  the  chain; 
you  have  the  license  law.  If  you  have 
the  license  law,  you  have  the  saloon,  you 
have  the  drink,  you  have  the  drunkard. 
There  is  yet  another  link ;  the  license  law 
is  linked  to  the  license  voter.  The  drunk- 
ard comes  from  the  drink,  the  drink  comes 
from  the  saloon,  the  saloon  from  the  law, 
and  law  from  the  license  voter.  Who  are 
the  license  voters?  Many  of  them  are 
Christian  men  on  their  way  to  heaven ;  but 
the  trouble  with  them  is  the  other  end  of 
the  chain  is  going  another  road.  "No 
drunkard  can  enter  the  kingdom  of  heav- 
en." 

I  know  it  is  a  common  remark  that  this 
is  a  free  country,  and  if  a  man  chooses  to 
drink,  let  him  do  so  and  take  the  conse- 
quences. If  one  could  take  alone  the  con- 
sequences of  his  sin  there  might  be  some 
claim  to  personal  liberty.  But  when  a 
man's  liberty  involves  another  life  the 
scene  changes.  A  young  man  may  commit 
a  sin  in  social  life  and  by  reform  be  for- 
given, but  when  that  other  life  involved 
in  his  sin,  is  seen  in  after  years,  walking 
the  streets  in  painted  shame,  reproducing 


OUR  COUNTRY  119 

the  consequences  of  that  man's  sin,  mem- 
ory and  conscience  will  combine  to  give 
him  waking  hours  while  the  world  sleeps. 
A  man  may  never  enter  a  saloon,  never 
take  a  drink  of  intoxicating  liquor,  but  if 
he  votes  for  the  saloon  his  life  becomes  in- 
volved in  the  consequences  of  the  saloon. 
What  are  the  consequences?  Here  is  a 
sample.  After  a  three  days'  blizzard  in 
one  of  our  large  cities  a  reformer  visited 
a  morgue  and  seeing  a  large  clothes-ham- 
per full  of  dead  babies  he  said:  "What 
does  this  mean?" 

The  reply  came :  "They  were  gathered 
from  the  drunkards'  hovels  of  the  city  this 
morning." 

The  visitor  tells  us :  "Their  bodies  were 
frozen,  and  several  arms  were  sticking  up 
out  of  the  basket  as  if  reaching  out  after 
life  and  love." 

The  streets  of  our  city  slums  are  rivers 
along  whose  shores  at  midnight  can  be 
heard  the  death  gurgle  of  helpless  little 
ones,  while  poverty's  row  is  full  of  chil- 
dren cursed  by  inheritance,  who  are  not 
living  but  merely  existing  by  scraping  the 
moss  of  bare  subsistence  from  empty  buck- 
ets in  wells  of  poverty;  and  the  air  is 
freighted  with  oaths  and  obscenities  from 


120         POPULAR  LECTURES. 

demonized  men  and  demi-monde  women 
who  pour  the  poison  of  their  blood  into  the 
social  life  of  city  slums. 

I  was  both  grieved  and  amazed  when  I 
read  from  the  pen  of  a  brilliant  Kentucky 
editor  an  editorial  denouncing  as  tyranni- 
cal a  sumptuary  law  that  "denies  to  a  cit- 
izen the  right  to  order  his  home,  his  meat, 
his  drink,  his  clothing,  according  to  his 
conscience."  I  wonder  if  the  great  editor 
ever  considered  the  sumptuary  law  of  the 
saloon.  Every  woman  who  fills  the  holy 
office  of  wife  and  mother  has  a  right  to  a 
home.  The  sumptuary  law  of  the  saloon 
says  to  hundreds  of  thousands  of  such  wo- 
men: "You  shall  not  have  a  home;  you 
shall  live  in  a  hovel.  You  shall  not  order 
your  home,  your  food,  your  drink,  your 
clothing,  according  to  your  conscience,  but 
according  to  the  best  interest  of  the  sa- 
loon these  comforts  shall  be  ordered.  You 
shall  work  all  day  in  the  harness  of  op- 
pression and  when  night  comes  instead 
of  restful  sleep,  you  shall  watch  the  stars 
out  and  wait  the  return  of  husband  and 
sons."  What  about  this  inhuman  denial 
of  the  right  to  order  meat,  drink,  cloth- 
ing and  home  life?  Such  is  the  sumptuary 
law  of  the  saloon. 


OUR  COUNTRY  121 

Every  child  in  this  country  has  a  right 
to  an  education  and  a  chance  in  the  world. 
The  saloons  say  to  hosts  of  children :  "You 
shall  have  neither  education  nor  oppor- 
tunity. You  shall  go  to  the  streets  and 
sweat-shops  to  earn  bread.  You  shall  live 
in  ignorance  and  mid  evil  environment 
that  we  may  gather  in  the  wages  of  your 
fathers."  How  does  this  sumptuary  law 
of  the  saloon  compare  with  a  sumptuary 
law  that  forbids  the  sale  of  what  is  of  no 
earthly  or  eternal  benefit  to  any  one  who 
uses  it. 

The  same  distinguished  editor  said: 
"When  women  gather  around  voting 
booths  on  election  days  with  sandwiches 
and  coffee,  they  present  an  indecent  spec- 
tacle to  the  public."  The  man  who  goes 
with  gun  in  hand  and  shoots  down  an- 
other in  defense  of  his  country  is  a  hero. 
The  mother  lion  or  bear  that  defies  the 
hunter's  bullets  and  dies  in  defense  of  her 
young  we  can  but  respect;  but  when  wo- 
man, who  has  suffered  so  long  in  silence, 
goes  near  where  the  welfare  of  her  home 
is  at  stake  and  out  of  the  sore,  sad  sorrow 
of  her  heart  appeals  to  men  for  protection 
to  her  home  from  the  ravages  of  the  sa- 
loon, she  is  not  paid  the  respect  given  to 


122         POPULAR  LECTURES. 

a  mother  hen  or  bird  or  bear  by  the  advo- 
cate of  the  liquor  traffic.  When  the  niece 
of  Cardinal  Richelieu  was  demanded  by  a 
licentious  king,  the  Cardinal  said: 
"Around  her  form  I  draw  the  awful  cir- 
cle of  our  kingly  church ;  set  a  foot  with- 
in and  on  thy  head,  aye,  though  it  wear 
a  crown,  shall  fall  the  curse  of  Rome." 
Shall  the  crown  of  gold  on  the  distiller's 
and  brewer's  brow  hush  into  silence  the 
lion-hearted  manhood  of  our  republic 
when  its  sons  and  daughters  are  demand- 
ed to  feed  the  maw  of  the  liquor  traffic? 

One  of  the  famous  pictures  of  the  mas- 
ters is  of  a  woman  bound  fast  to  a  pillar 
within  the  tide-mark  of  the  ocean.  The 
waves  are  curling  about  her  feet.  A  ship 
is  passing  under  full  sail  but  no  one  seems 
to  see  or  heed  the  woman  in  peril.  Birds 
of  prey  hover  above  her,  but  she  sees 
neither  bird,  nor  ship,  nor  sea;  knowing 
her  doom  is  sealed,  she  lifts  her  eyes  to 
heaven  and  prays.  This  picture  repre- 
sents thousands  of  women  tied  fast  to 
their  doom  within  the  tide-waves  of  the 
ocean  of  intemperance.  The  ship  of  state 
passes  by,  bearing  its  share  of  the  ill-got- 
ten gains  of  the  liquor  traffic,  but  heeds 
not  the  moans  and  cries  of  struggling, 


OUR  COUNTRY  123 

strangling,  dying  woman.  Oliver  Crom- 
well said:  "It  is  relative  misgovernment 
that  lashes  nations  into  fury."  The  long 
suffering  in  silence  by  the  womanhood  of 
this  country  from  the  misgovernment  that 
has  heaped  upon  woman  the  woes  of 
strong  drink  by  the  licensed  saloon,  wheth- 
er a  tribute  to  the  patience  of  woman  or 
not,  is  to  the  eternal  shame  of  man, 
whose  inhumanity  to  woman  through  the 
liquor  traffic  is  making  "countless  millions 
mourn." 

To  this  misgovernment  is  due  the  unrest 
among  women  and  the  impetus  behind  the 
equal  suffrage  movement  today.  There 
needs  to  be  a  saving  influence  brought  in- 
to our  political  life,  and  I  have  faith  to  be- 
lieve that  woman's  ballot  will  provide  that 
influence.  Having  proved  her  dignity  in 
every  new  field  of  activity  she  has  enter- 
ed, I  believe  the  same  flowers  of  refine- 
ment will  adorn  the  ballot  box  when  she 
holds  in  her  hand  the  sacred  trust  of  fran- 
chise. Her  life-long  habit  of  house-clean- 
ing will  be  carried  to  the  dirty  pool  of 
politics,  where  the  saloon  is  entrenched, 
and  the  demagogue  and  demijohn  will  be 
carted  away  to  the  garbage  pile  of  dis- 
carded rubbish. 


124         POPULAR  LECTURES. 

Now  and  then  I  am  asked :  "What  will 
become  of  the  men  who  are  engaged  in  the 
liquor  business  if  the  country  goes  dry? 
What  will  become  of  their  families?"  I 
answer  by  asking:  What  becomes  of  the 
men  the  saloons  put  out  of  business  ?  What 
becomes  of  their  families  ?  When  prohibi- 
tion puts  a  man  out  of  business,  it  leaves 
him  his  brain,  blood,  bone,  muscle,  nerves 
and  whatever  manhood  he  has  left  in 
store,  while  his  long  rest  from  active  toil 
has  given  him  a  reserve  force  for  active, 
useful  business.  When  the  saloon  puts  a 
man  out  of  business,  he  goes  out  with 
shattered  nerves,  weak  will,  poisoned 
blood  and  so  unfitted  for  service  no  place 
is  open  for  him  to  earn  a  living.  Recently 
a  man  put  out  of  business  by  prohibition 
said  tc  me:  "This  town  went  dry  seven 
years  ago,  and  going  out  of  the  saloon  bus- 
iness has  been  such  a  benefit  to  me  and  to 
my  family,  I  shall  work  and  vote  to  put 
all  other  saloon-keepers  in  this  state  out 
of  business  for  their  own  good." 

On  the  other  hand,  I  have  in  mind  a 
man  who  once  chained  the  Congress  of  the 
United  States  by  his  eloquence.  Clients 
•clamored  for  his  service,  and  prosperity 
crowned  his  practice  in  the  courts.  In 


OUR  COUNTRY  125 

drinking  saloons  he  lost  his  clientage  and 
in  penniless  poverty  he  died — unwept,  un- 
honored,  unsung.  The  ex-saloon-keeper  to 
whom  I  referred  is  city  marshall  and  very 
popular,  while  the  man  put  out  of  business 
by  the  saloon  has  no  chance: 

"Where  he  goes  and  how  he  fares, 
Nobody  knows  and  nobody  cares." 

Along  with  the  question  of  what  will 
become  of  the  men  put  out  of  business  by 
prohibition,  comes  the  question,  what  will 
the  farmers  do  with  their  corn  if  distil- 
leries are  closed?  Less  consumption  of 
whiskey  means  more  consumption  of  corn- 
bread  and  that  means  more  corn.  Less 
consumption  of  whiskey  means  greater 
consumption  of  bacon,  and  more  bacon 
means  more  corn  to  feed  hogs.  When  a 
liquor  advocate  said  to  an  audience  of  far- 
mers: "If  this  state  goes  dry  what  will 
_  you  farmers  do  with  your  corn,"  an  old, 
level-headed  farmer  shouted :  "We'll  raise 
more  hogs  and  less  hell." 

Prohibition  means  more  of  everything 
good,  and  less  of  everything  bad;  more 
manhood,  less  meanness;  more  gain,  less 
groans;  more  bread,  less  brawls;  more 
clothing,  less  cussedness;  less  heartaches 


126          POPULAR  LECTURES. 

and  more  happiness.  Turn  saloons  into 
bake  shops  and  butcher  stalls,  distilleries 
into  food  factories,  breweries  into  stock 
pens,  and  the  country  will  be  a  thousand- 
fold better  off  than  feeding  its  finances  by 
starving  its  morality. 

This  question  lifts  itself  head  and 
shoulders  above  every  other  question 
touching  practical  politics  today.  You  no- 
where read  of  a  nation  going  to  destruc- 
tion because  of  too  much  gold  or  too  little 
silver,  too  much  tariff  or  too  little  tariff, 
but  always  because  of  the  vices  of  its  peo- 
ple. The  nation  that  bases  perpetuity  upon 
moral  character  will  endure  with  the 
stars,  while  walls  thick  and  high  as 
Babylon's  will  not  save  a  drunken  repub- 
lic. 

"Vain  mightiest  fleets  of  iron  found, 
Vain  all  her  conquering  guns, 

Unless  Columbia  keeps  unstained 
The  true  hearts  of  her  sons." 

Beautiful  Constance  of  France  was 
dressing  for  a  court  ball.  While  standing 
before  a  mirror,  clasping  a  necklace  of 
pearls,  a  spark  from  the  fireplace  caught 
in  the  folds  of  her  gown.  Absorbed  in 
her  attire,  she  did  not  detect  the  danger 


OUR  COUNTRY  127 

until  a  blaze  started.  Soon,  rolling  on  the 
floor  in  flames,  she  burned  to  death.  When 
the  news  reached  the  ballroom  the  music 
hushed,  the  dance  halted,  and  "Poor  Con- 
stance! Poor  Constance!"  went  from  lip 
to  lip,  but  soon  the  music  started  and  the 
dance  went  on.  While  I  am  talking  now 
the  youth,  beauty  and  sweetness  of  Amer- 
can  life  is  in  peril  from  the  flames  that 
are  kindled  by  the  licensed  saloon.  From 
an,  inward  fire  men  are  being  consumed 
and  homes  destroyed.  Will  we  say,  "Poor 
Columbia!"  and  keep  step  to  the  mocker's 
march  to  the  nation's  death;  or  will  we 
put  out  every  distillery  and  brewery  fire 
and  make  this  in  reality  "the  land  of  the 
free  and  the  home  of  the  brave?" 

In  the  name  of  all  that  is  pure  and  true 
and  vital  in  national  life,  I  plead  with  ev- 
ery lover  of  home  and  country  to  come  to 
the  help  of  the  cause  that  must  succeed  if 
this  republic  is  to  live.  I  plead  with 
Christians  in  the  name  of  the  church, 
bleeding  at  every  pore  because  of  the 
curse  of  drink.  If  everyone  whose  name 
is  on  a  church  roll  would  step  out  in  line 
of  duty  on  this  question,  very  soon  God 
would  stretch  out  His  arm  and  save  this 
republic  from  the  liquor  traffic.  God  has 


128         POPULAR  LECTURES. 

been  ready  a  long  time;  His  people  have 
not  been  ready  to  do  their  part.  Too 
many  Christians  are  like  the  horse  of 
which  Sam  Jones  used  to  tell. 

He  said :  "We  have  a  horse  in  my  neigh- 
borhood in  Georgia,  which  if  hitched  to  a 
load  of  stone  or  cotton  balks  and  won't  go 
a  step;  but  in  light  harness  in  the  shafts 
of  a  race  cart  he  will  pace  a  mile  in  two- 
thiirty.  We  have  too  many  Christians 
who  are  like  this  horse;  they  trot  out  to 
church  Sunday  morning,  but  hitch  them 
to  a  prayer  meeting  and  they  won't  pull  a 
pound." 

Dr.  McLeod,  the  stalwart  Scotch  preach- 
er, on  his  way  to  a  session  of  his  church 
had  with  him  a  small  hunch-back  member 
of  his  church,  a  dwarf  in  size  but  an  earn- 
est worker.  Crossing  a  certain  stream 
a  storm  struck  the  boat  and  the  waves 
were  sending  it  toward  the  rocks.  A  boat- 
man at  one  end  said: 

"Let  the  big  preacher  pray  for  us." 
The  helmsman  at  the  other  end  said: 
"No,  let  that  little  fellow  pray  and  the  big 
one  take  an  oar." 

Oliver  Cromwell,  going  through  a  ca- 
thedral, came  upon  twelve  silver  statues. 


OUR  COUNTRY  129 

Turning  to  the  guide  he  said:  "Who  are 
these?" 

The  guide  replied:  "Those  are  the 
twelve  apostles,  life-size  and  solid  silver." 

Cromwell  said:  "What  good  are  they 
doing  as  silver  apostles?  Melt  them  down 
into  money  and  let  them  be  of  some  ser- 
vice to  the  country." 

We  have  too  many  silver  statue  church 
members  who  need  melting  down  and 
sending  out  to  help  save  our  republic  from 
the  fate  of  other  nations  that  have  per- 
ished through  their  vices.  We  need  more 
men  with  moral  courage  to  voice  and  vote 
their  convictions.  When  the  slavery  ques- 
tion was  agitating  the  country  Henry  Clay 
stood  for  a  compromise  he  believed  would 
help  to  solve  the  question.  Many  of  his 
friends  in  the  South  censured  him,  and 
sent  him  letters  calling  him  a  traitor.  He 
arose  in  the  Senate  to  speak,  it  is  said, 
looking  pale  from  the  effect  of  the  cen- 
sure he  was  then  receiving  day  by  day. 
Addressing  the  Senate  he  said :  "I  suppose 
what  I  shall  say  in  this  address  will  cost 
me  many  dear  friends."  A  reporter  said : 
"He  hesitated  as  if  choked  with  emotion 
at  the  thought  of  losing  his  friends."  Then 
with  the  majesty  of  greatness  and  magnet- 


130         POPULAR  LECTURES. 

ism  of  manner  he  proceeded,  saying:  "I 
am  charged  with  being  ambitious.  If  I 
had  listened  to  the  soft  whisperings  of  am- 
bition I  would  have  stood  still,  gazed  upon 
the  raging  storm  and  let  the  ship  of  state 
drift  on  with  the  winds.  I  seek  no  office 
at  the  cost  of  courage  or  conviction.  Pass 
this  bill.  Restore  affection  to  the  states 
of  this  Union  and  I  will  go  back  to  my 
Ashland  home ;  there  in  its  groves,  on  its 
lawns,  'mid  my  flocks  and  herds,  and  in 
the  bosom  of  my  family,  I  will  find  a  sin- 
cerity I  have  not  found  in  the  public  walks 
of  life.  Yes,  I  am  ambitious,  but  my  am- 
bition is  that  I  may  become  the  humble 
instrument  in  the  hands  of  God,  in  restor- 
ing harmony  to  a  distracted  nation,  and 
behold  the  glorious  spectacle  of  a  true, 
united  happy  and  prosperous  people." 

There  is  a  grandeur  in  the  mountain 
that  lifts  itself  above  the  hamlets  at  its 
base,  and  bearing  its  brow  to  the  threat- 
ening storm  clouds  says  to  the  forked 
lightning,  "Strike  me !"  but  grander  is  the 
man  who  can  stand  'mid  the  allurements 
of  the  world's  honors  and  say:  "I  would 
rather  be  right  than  President."  Dare  to 
do  right  and  what  you  do  will  have  its  re- 
ward. 


OUR  COUNTRY  131 

"Shamgar,  what's  that  in  thy  hand?" 

"Only  an  ox-goad." 

"Come  dedicate  it  to  God,  and  go  slay 
those  Philistines." 

"David,  what's  that  in  thy  hand?" 

"Only  a  sling  and  a  little  stone  from  the 
brook." 

"Come  dedicate  them  to  God,  and  go  kill 
the  giant." 

"My  little  lad,  what's  that  you  have?" 

"Only  five  loaves  and  two  little  fishes." 

"Come,  dedicate  them  to  God;  they'll 
feed  thousands  and  you  will  have  baskets 
full  left." 

My  brother,  what's  that  in  thy  hand? 
Only  a  little  American  ballot.  Come  dedi- 
cate it  to  God  and  home  and  native  land, 
go  cast  it  against  the  licensed  liquor 
traffic  and  your  life  will  bear  fruit  which 
the  angels  will  gather  when  you  have  "fin- 
ished your  course"  and  "kept  the  faith." 

You  are  soon  to  have  the  local  option 
test  in  your  county.  If  I  could  do  one 
thing  I  could  make  the  victory  for  the 
home  overwhelming.  You  know  if  the 
saloons  continue  they  will  have  their  vic- 
tims in  the  future  as  they  have  had  in  the 
past.  You  know  too  their  victims  will 
come  from  the  youth  of  your  county. 


132         POPULAR  LECTURES. 

Those  who  are  victims  now  will  soon  be 
dead  bodies,  or  "dead  broke."  The  men  in 
the  saloon  business  do  not  look  to  men 
who  are  drunkards  now,  for  future  use 
nor  do  they  intend  to  use  horses  or  cattle 
or  dogs,  but  boys.  If  I  could  announce 
that  on  the  evening  before  the  vote  is  to 
be  taken  I  would  present  to  the  public  the 
future  victims  of  the  saloons  in  this  coun- 
ty. If  I  had  a  prophet's  eye  and  could  se- 
lect these  victims,  how  many  homes  I 
would  enter  where  I  would  not  only  be  an 
unwelcome  but  an  unexpected  visitor. 
When  the  hour  would  arrive  for  the  exhi- 
bition, what  an  audience  I  would  have! 
Nothing  like  it  ever  gathered  in  this 
county;  from  every  corner  of  it  parents 
would  come.  When  placed  in  line  on  an 
elevated  platform  so  all  could  see,  I  would 
speak  through  a  megaphone  saying:  "I 
present  to  you  the  future  victims  of  the 
liquor  traffic  in  your  county ;  here  are  the 
boys  who  will  be  your  future  drunkards 
and  here  are  the  girls  who  will  be  the 
wives  of  drunkards."  I  imagine  some 
father,  who  thinks  regulation  the  best 
policy,  would  exclaim: 

"There's  my  boy.    I  never  thought  the 
saloon  would  take  my  son.    Don't  talk  to 


OUR  COUNTRY  133 

me  about  regulation.  Come,  you  fathers 
whose  sons  are  not  here,  and  help  me  save 
my  boy." 

Another  would  press  through  the  crowd 
to  be  sure  that  he  was  not  mistaken  and 
say:  "There's  my  daughter.  I  never 
dreamt  she  would  be  a  drunkard's  wife. 
I  have  said  prohibition  won't  prohibit,  but 
I  will  say  it  no  more.  Come,  good  fathers 
who  love  your  children,  and  help  me  save 
my  child." 

This  is  but  the  forecast  for  some  par- 
ents in  this  audience.  Would  it  be  wrong 
if  I  should  say :  "0  God,  if  the  saloons  are 
to  continue  in  this  county,  if  they  are  to 
have  their  victims  in  the  future  as  in  the 
past,  let  the  fathers  who  vote  the  curse  on 
the  county  furnish  the  victims."  I  do  not 
offer  up  any  such  prayer,  but  I  do  say :  "O 
God,  give  to  the  home  the  protec- 
tion of  a  prohibition  law,  and  may  the  vic- 
tims not  be  anybody's  boy  or  anybody's 
girl.  Go  out  of  this  hall  tonight  resolved 
you  will  link  your  taith  in  principle  with 
your  work.  Faith  and  work! 

I  iike  that  story  of  the  mother  in  New 
England,  who  on  a  visit  from  home,  re- 
ceived a  message  calling  her  to  the  bed- 
side of  a  daughter  who  was  hopelessly  ill. 


134         POPULAR  LECTURES. 

Hurrying  to  the  nearest  railroad  station 
she  said  to  the  conductor:  "Sir,  do  you 
connect  at  the  junction  with  the  train  that 
will  take  me  to  my  sick  child,"  at  the  same 
time  handing  him  the  message. 

"No,  madam,  we  do  not  run  our  trains 
to  connect  with  trains  on  that  road.  The 
train  will  be  gone  some  little  time  before 
we  reach  the  junction." 

"Sir,  are  you  a  Christian?" 

"No,  madam,  I'm  a  railroad  conductor." 

"Have  you  a  Christian  man  with  the 
train?" 

"Yes,  that  man  you  see  oiling  the  en- 
gine claims  to  be  a  Christian,  and  I  think 
he  is ;  you  might  consult  him  if  you  like." 

Going  to  the  engineer  she  said :  "Please 
read  this  message  and  tell  me  if  you  can 
catch  that  train  at  the  junction." 

The  engineer  read  the  message  and 
said:  "I'm  sorry,  madam,  but  that  train 
goes  fifteen  minutes  before  we  get  there." 

"Please  sir,  catch  that  train  and  let  me 
see  my  daughter  before  she  dies." 

"I  would  give  a  whole  month's  wages  if 
I  could,"  said  the  tender  hearted  engineer. 

"Then  don't  you  think  God  can  hold  the 
train  fifteen  minutes  till  we  get  there," 
said  the  distressed  mother. 


OUR  COUNTRY  135 

"Oh  yes,  God  can  do  anything,"  was  the 
reply. 

"Won't  you  ask  God  to  hold  that  train? 
And  I  will  ask  Him." 

The  engineer  said:  "Yes,  I  will." 

The  mother  boarded  the  train,  and  on 
schedule  time  the  engine  moved.  The  en- 
gineer took  hold  of  the  lever  and  up  with 
the  smoke  from  the  engine  went  the  pray- 
er: "Lord,  hold  that  train  fifteen  minutes 
for  that  good  mother."  With  this  prayer 
more  steam  was  turned  on  than  usual  and 
at  the  next  station  the  train  was  two  min- 
utes ahead  of  time.  At  the  next  station 
two  more  minutes  had  been  gained.  It 
was  in  the  early  days  of  railroading  when 
rules  were  not  so  strict  as  now;  the  con- 
ductor knew  there  was  nothing  in  the  way, 
so  he  concluded  to  let  the  Christian  engi- 
neer have  his  way.  As  the  train  was 
starting  for  its  third  and  last  run  for  the 
junction,  the  engineer  said :  "Lord,  if  you 
will  hold  that  other  train  seven  and  a  half 
minutes,  I'll  make  up  the  other  seven  and 
a  half." 

When  the  engineer  had  made  up  his  sev- 
en and  a  half,  sure  enough  there  stood  the 
other  train.  When  the  engineer  said  to 
the  conductor:  "What  are  you  waiting 


136         POPULAR  LECTURES. 

for,"  the  reply  was :  "Something  the  mat- 
ter with  the  engine,  but  the  boys  have  it 
fixed  now  and  we'll  go  on  in  a  minute." 

"Yes,"  said  the  engineer,  "you'll  go  on 
when  this  godly  mother  gets  on  and  not 
before." 

Each  one  of  you  do  your  part,  God  will 
do  His  part,  and  the  end  will  be  victory  for 
"God  and  home  and  native  land." 


IV 

THE   NEW  WOMAN  AND  THE   OLD 

MAN. 

In  the  exhibition  of  fine  paintings  it  is 
important  to  have  the  benefit  of  proper 
light  and  shadow.  So  it  should  be  in  the 
study  of  questions.  Those  who  look  at 
the  new  woman  through  the  distorted 
lense  of  false  education  or  prejudice,  see 
the  monstrosity  such  as  we  have  pictured 
in  the  public  press.  They  see  Dr.  Mary 
Walker,  whose  dress  offends  our  sense  of 
propriety ;  they  see  the  ranting  woman  on 
the  plaform,  or  suffragettes  throwing 
stones  through  plate-glass  windows,  and 
defacing  costly  specimens  of  art.  These 
no  more  represent  the  genuine  new  woman 
I  indorse,  than  does  the  goggled-eyed,  kim- 
bo-armed  dandy  represent  true  manhood. 
Fanaticism  marks  every  new  movement, 
every  life  has  its  defect,  the  sun  its  spots 
and  the  fairest  face  its  freckles. 

The  new  woman  is  not  to  be  judged  by 
137 


138         POPULAR  LECTURES. 

exceptions,  nor  is  she  to  be  measured  by 
the  standard  of  public  sentiment.  Public 
sentiment  has  often  condemned  the  right. 
It  ridiculed  Columbus;  put  Roger  Bacon 
in  jail  because  he  discovered  the  princi- 
ple of  concave  and  convex  glass ;  condemn- 
ed Socrates,  and  jeered  Fulton  and  Morse. 
It  pronounced  the  making  of  table  forks  a 
mockery  of  the  Creator  who  gave  us  fin- 
gers to  eat  with,  and  broke  up  a  church 
in  Illinois  because  a  woman  prayed  in 
prayer  meeting. 

Hume  said:  "There  is  nothing  in  itself, 
beautiful  or  deformed.  These  attributes 
arise  from  the  peculiar  construction  of 
human  sentiment  and  affection;  the  at- 
tractiveness or  repulsiveness  of  a  thing  de- 
pends very  much  upon  our  schooling." 

Prof.  John  Stuart  Blackie  wore  his  hair 
so  long  that  it  almost  reached  his  waist 
Seated  one  day  in  front  of  a  hotel  in  Lon- 
don, a  bootblack  halted  before  him  and 
said:  "Mister,  will  you  have  a  shine?" 

Professor  Blackie  replied:  "No,  but  if 
you  will  go  wash  that  dirty  face  of  yours 
I  will  give  you  the  price  of  a  shine." 

The  boy  went  but  soon  returned  with  his 
rosy  cheeks  cleansed,  saying:  "Sir,  how 
do  you  like  the  job?" 


THE  NEW  WOMAN  139 

"That's  all  right;  you  have  earned  your 
sixpence,"  said  Prof.  Blackie  as  he  held 
out  the  coin. 

The  bootblack  turning  away  said:  "I 
dinna  want  your  sixpence;  keep  it,  old 
chap,  and  have  yer  hair  cut." 

The  long  hair  of  Professor  Blackie  was 
as  offensive  to  the  boy  as  the  dirty  face 
of  the  boy  to  Professor  Blackie.  One  had 
been  schooled  to  short-haired  men,  the 
other  to  cleanly  children. 

I  have  in  my  presence  now  scores  of 
persons,  who  believe  the  sale  of  a  negro 
on  the  auction  block  in  the  South  to  the 
domination  of  a  white  man  was  wrong.  I 
did  not  think  so  in  my  youth.  My  school- 
ing was  that  Japheth  was  a  white  man, 
Shem  a  red  man  and  Ham  was  black ;  that 
it  was  a  divine  decree  that  the  descend- 
ants of  Japheth  should  dwell  in  the  tents 
of  Shem  and  send  for  the  children  of  Ham 
to  be  their  servants,  thereby  supporting 
the  white  man  in  his  dealings  with  the 
black  and  red  races.  As  the  Bible  was 
used  to  justify  slavery,  so  it  is  quoted  to- 
day in  favor  of  the  liquor  traffic,  and 
against  the  new  woman  movement.  Yet 
it's  the  Bible  that  has  given  woman  her 
broader  liberty.  It  was  the  Bible  that 


140         POPULAR  LECTURES. 

broke  the  chains  that  harnessed  woman  to 
a  plow  by  the  side  of  an  ox.  In  the  vis- 
ion of  John,  a  woman  is  crowned  with 
stars,  the  burnt-out  moon  is  her  footstool 
and  the  wings  of  a  great  eagle  given  to 
bear  her  above  the  floods  that  would  en- 
gulf her. 

The  viewpoint  of  schooling  has  much  to 
do  with  our  convictions  and  prejudices. 
When  the  bicycle  craze  first  came  upon  us, 
women  bicycle  clubs  were  formed  through- 
out the  country.  Wheels  were  made  spe- 
cially for  woman,  and  to  facilitate  the 
pleasure  and  comfort,  bloomers  were  worn 
by  women  in  all  our  cities.  The  fat  and 
lean,  tall  and  short,  old  and  young  wore 
bloomers.  At  that  time  if  a  man  from  the 
country  neighborhood  where  I  was  reared, 
one  given  to  dancing,  had  gone  to  Chicago 
and  seen  these  bloomer-clad  women,  he 
would  have  thought  the  whole  sex  dis- 
graced. And  I  must  admit  I  didn't  like 
the  bloomer  girl  myself.  I  can  appreciate 
the  Yankee  farmer  who  lived  between  Bos- 
ton and  Wareham,  Mass.  A  young  woman 
who  lived  in  Boston  had  a  friend  in 
Wareham,  and  donning  her  bloomers  she 
mounted  her  wheel  and  started  for  the  vil- 
lage. Passing  several  diverging  points, 


THE  NEW  WOMAN  141 

and  thinking  possibly  she  had  missed  the 
right  road,  she  decided  to  inquire  at  the 
next  house.  Seeing  the  Yankee  farmer  at 
the  front  gate  she  rode  up,  dismounted 
and  said :  "Sir,  will  you  please  tell  me,  is 
this  the  way  to  Wareham?" 

The  farmer,  with  eyes  fixed  upon  the 
new  garb,  said:  "Miss,  you'll  have  to  ex- 
cuse me.  I  can't  tell  you,  for  I  never  saw 
anything  like  them  before." 

I  said  our  opinions  are  based  upon 
schooling.  Let  the  man  from  the  dancing 
community  leave  Chicago,  go  back  to  Ken- 
tucky, attend  a  country  ball,  see  a  young 
woman  with  low  neck  dress  and  short 
sleeves,  in  the  arms  of  a  man  she  never 
met  before,  and  he  thinks  her  the  picture 
of  propriety,  as  well  as  grace  and  beauty. 
Yet  the  bloomer  girl  was  completely  clad 
from  her  chin  to  the  soles  of  her  feet  while 
the  other  is  so  un-clad  that  when  a  wom- 
an, now  noted  for  her  great  work  among 
the  unfortunate  of  New  York  City,  was  a 
society  leader,  and  was  passing  through 
her  library  to  her  carriage  one  evening, 
her  little  son  said :  "Mama,  you  are  not  go- 
ing out  on  the  street  looking  that  way,  are 
you?  Why,  you  are  scarcely  dressed  at 
all."  The  mother  realizing  as  never  be- 


142         POPULAR  LECTURES. 

fore,  the  immodesty  of  her  attire,  returned 
to  her  room,  changed  her  apparel  to  what 
met  the  approval  of  her  boy,  and  has  nev- 
er since  worn  a  decollete  gown. 

Let  a  respectable  woman  in  this  town 
stand  on  a  street  corner  to-morrow,  and 
utter  an  oath ;  she  would  shock  every  one 
within  sound  of  her  voice.  A  man  can 
"cuss"  to  his  satisfaction  and,  if  not  a 
ch/urch  member,  the  community  is  not 
shocked.  Let  a  young  woman  seeking  a 
position  in  a  public  school  in  one  of  our 
cities,  call  a  member  of  the  school  board 
into  a  saloon  and  order  beer  set  up  for 
two;  would  she  get  the  position?  Not 
much.  Not  if  the  community  found  it  out, 
or  the  remainder  of  the  board  who  were 
slighted.  A  man  can  invite  a  dozen  men 
into  a  saloon,  order  drinks  for  the  com- 
pany, and  thereby  help  to  win  the  posi- 
tion he  seeks.  In  the  city  where  I  reside 
a  young  man  can  get  drunk  and  howl  like 
a  wolf  through  the  streets,  yet  if  he  has 
wealth  and  family  influence,  in  ten  days 
he  can  attend  a  social  gathering  of  the 
best  society.  Let  a  young  woman  step 
aside  from  the  path  of  right  and  she  is 
hurled  to  the  depths  of  the  low-land  of 
vices. 


THE  NEW  WOMAN  143 

Some  years  ago  a  young  man  died  in 
our  city  whose  family  name  was  honored 
and  whose  father  was  wealthy.  The  young 
man  went  the  pace  that  kills  and  in  the 
very  morning  of  life  died  a  victim  to  his 
vices.  A  long  line  of  carriages  followed 
him  to  our  beautiful  cemetery,  his  pall 
bearers  were  from  the  leading  families  of 
the  city;  flowers  covered  his  grave  and 
the  daily  papers  paid  a  tribute  to  the 
young  man  cut  down  before  the  river  of 
life  was  half  run. 

Soon  after,  a  poor  girl  died  in  one  of 
the  wicked  dens  of  the  city.  She  had  been 
left  an  orphan  in  early  life  without  a 
mother's  love  to  guard  and  guide  her,  she 
went  astray.  Two  carriages  followed  her 
to  the  stranger's  burying  ground.  In  one 
were  two  of  her  kind ;  in  the  other  the  pas- 
tor of  the  church  of  which  I  am  a  member. 
He  afterward  said  to  me :  "We  had  to  get 
two  negro  men  at  work  near  by  to  help 
lower  her  body  into  the  grave." 

No  wonder  woman  cries  out  against 
these  standards,  these  peculiar  construc- 
tions of  human  sentiment.  Public  senti- 
ment demands  of  a  man  that  he  shall  be 
physically  brave.  If  a  woman  appeals  to 
him  for  protection,  his  bosom  must  heave 


144          POPULAR  ECTURES. 

with  courage  like  the  billows  of  the  ocean, 
though  he  quake  in  his  boots.  Yet  the 
woman  he  defends  will  endure  pain  with- 
out a  murmur,  which  would  make  the  man 
groan  for  an  hour.  When  my  wife  is  ill 
it  takes  about  two  days  to  find  it  out ;  she 
does  not  seem  so  cheerful  the  first  day,  and 
the  second,  she  will  admit  she  is  not  so 
well.  Let  me  get  sick  and  the  whole  fam- 
ily will  know  it  in  half  an  hour. 

I  know  a  woman  will  scream  if  a  mouse 
runs  across  the  floor,  but  give  her  a  loved 
one  to  defend,  let  supreme  danger  come 
and  she's  no  coward.  John  Temple  Graves 
tells  of  a  Georgia  girl  so  timid  she  was 
afraid  to  cross  the  hall  at  night  to  moth- 
er's room.  She  married  a  worthy  young 
man  and  by  industry  and  economy  they 
paid  for  a  cottage  home.  He  began  to 
cough,  and  the  hectic  flush  told  his  lungs 
were  involved.  The  doctor  advised  a 
change  of  climate. 

"We'll  sell  the  home,"  said  the  little 
wife,  "and  go  where  the  doctor  advises, 
for  the  home  will  be  nothing  to  me  if  you 
are  gone." 

They  went  to  Florida  and  knowing  they 
must  husband  their  small  means,  she  took 
in  sewing.  A  few  months  later  the  doctor 


THE  NEW  WOMAN  145 

advised  a  higher  altitude.  They  went  to 
a  little  city  in  the  Ozark  mountains.  Here 
again  she  plied  her  needle,  wearing  upon 
her  face  by  day  a  smile  to  cheer  her  hus- 
band, while  at  night  her  pillow  was  wet 
with  tears  as  she  heard  him  coughing  his 
life  away.  After  several  months  she  was 
informed  by  physicians  that  but  one 
chance  in  a  hundred  remained,  and  that 
was  still  further  west. 

"I'll  take  the  hundredth  chance,"  she 
said,  and  on  west  they  went.  Soon  after, 
in  the  far-away  city  he  died ;  she  pawned 
her  wedding  ring  to  make  up  the  price  of 
tickets  back  to  Georgia.  There  the  little 
widow  buried  her  dead  by  the  side  of  his 
mother,  and  after  planting  her  favorite 
flowers  about  the  grave,  she  turned  away 
to  face  the  duties  of  life,  and  though 
a  dead  wall  seemed  lifted  before  her,  she 
met  each  day  with  a  smile  and  hid  her 
sorrow  beneath  the  soul's  altar  of  hope. 

Man  has  won  his  title  to  courage  upon 
battlefield,  and  yet  the  battlefield  is  not 
the  place  to  test  true  courage. 
"The  wife  who  girds  her  husband's  sword, 

'Mid  little  ones  who  weep  or  wonder, 
And  bravely  speaks  the  cheering  word, 

E'en  though  her  heart  be  rent  asunder: 


146         POPULAR  LECTURES. 

Doomed  nightly  in  her  dreams  to  hear 
The  bolts  of  death  around  him  rattle, 
Hath  shed  as  sacred  blood  as  ere 
r    Was  poured  upon  the  field  of  battle." 

When  elbows  touch,  ten  thousand  feet 
keep  step  together,  martial  music  fills  the 
air,  the  shout  of  battle  is  on,  bayonets 
glitter  in  the  sunlight,  the  flag  flutters  in 
the  breeze,  and  the  general  commands, 
men  will  shout  and  rush  into  battle  who 
without  these  stimulating  influences  would 
be  going  the  other  way.  I  remember 
when  a  boy  how  whistling  kept  up  my 
courage  in  the  dark.  It  is  told  of  General 
Zeb  Vance  of  the  Confederate  army,  that 
while  leading  his  forces  across  a  field  into 
an  engagement  he  met  a  rabbit  going  the 
other  way.  As  the  hare  dodged  around 
the  command,  General  Vance  lifting  his 
hat  said :  "Go  it,  Mollie ;  go  it,  Mollie  Cot- 
ton-tail ;  if  I  didn't  have  a  reputation  to 
sustain  I  would  be  right  there  with  you." 

For  Christine  Bradley,  the  eighteen- 
year-old  daughter  of  the  Governor  of  Ken- 
tucky, to  stand  on  the  dock  at  Newport 
News,  against  the  customs  of  centuries 
and  facing  the  jeers  of  prejudice,  bap- 
tize the  battleship  Kentucky  with  water, 


THE  NEW  WOMAN  147 

required  as  blood-born  bravery  as  coursed 
the  veins  of  the  ensign  who  cut  the  wires 
in  Cardenas  Bay,  or  the  lieutenant  who 
sunk  the  Merrimac  in  the  entrance  to 
Santiago  Harbor.  Because  she  dared  to 
violate  a  long-established  custom  by  re- 
fusing to  use  what  had  blighted  the  hopes 
of  many  daughters,  sent  to  drunkards' 
graves  so  many  sons,  >and  buried  crafts 
and  crews  in  watery  graves,  the  Woman's 
Christian  Temperance  Union  presented 
her  with  a  handsome  silver  service.  I 
was  chosen  to  make  the  presentation 
speech,  which  I  closed  by  saying:  "Heav- 
en bless  Christine  Bradley,  who  by  her 
example  said: 

I  christen  thee  Kentucky, 

With  water  from  the  spring, 

Which  enriched  the  blood  of  Lincoln, 
Whose  praise  the  sailors  sing. 

I  christen  thee  Kentucky, 

With  prayers  of  woman  true, 

That  wine,  the  curse  of  sailors, 
May  never  curse  your  crew. 

I  christen  thee  Kentucky, 

And  may  this  christening  be, 
A  lesson  of  safety  ever 
To  sailors  on  the  sea." 


148         POPULAR  LECTURES. 

Now  if  public  sentiment  has  made  such 
a  mistake  in  the  allotment  of  virtues,  why 
may  it  not  have  made  a  greater  mistake 
in  the  allotment  of  spheres?  It  has  been 
well  said:  "God  made  woman  a  free 
moral  agent,  capable  of  the  highest  devel- 
opment of  brain,  heart  and  conscience; 
with  these  are  interwoven  interests  that 
involve  issues  for  time  and  eternity,  and 
God  expects  of  woman  the  best  she  can 
do  in  whatever  field  she  is  best  fitted  for 
the  accomplishment  of  results  for  the 
world's  good."  If  a  young  woman  13 
fitted  to  preside  over  a  home,  and  some 
young  man  desires  to  crown  her  queen  of 
that  realm,  she  can  find  no  higher  calling 
in  this  world.  There  is  nothing  on  this 
earth  more  like  heaven  than  a  happy 
home.  I  can  give  to  a  young  woman  no 
better  wish  than  that  the  future  may  find 
her  presiding  over  a  home  made  beautiful 
by  her  character  and  culture,  and  safe 
through  her  influence. 

But  if  a  young  woman  is  qualified  like 
Frances  E.  Willard  to  better  the  world  by 
public  life-work,  or  like  Florence  Night- 
ingale or  Jane  Addams  to  relieve  the  suf- 
fering of  thousands,  then  she  should  not 
confine  herself  to  the  limited  sphere  of 


THE  NEW  WOMAN  149 

one  household.  I  believe  in  the  call  of  ca- 
pacity for  usefulness  in  both  sexes.  There 
are  men  who  are  called  to  be  cooks;  they 
know  the  art  of  the  caterer.  There  are 
men  fitted  to  be  dressmakers;  they  know 
the  colors  that  blend  and  the  styles  which 
give  beauty  to  dress.  There  are  women 
who  are  fitted  for  science,  literature  and 
medicine.  Some  of  the  best  cooks  we  have 
are  men;  some  of  the  best  writers  and 
speakers  are  women.  Abraham  Lincoln 
never  did  more  by  his  proclamation  to  free 
the  slave,  than  did  Harriet  Beecher  Stowe 
with  "Uncle  Tom's  Cabin."  William  E. 
Gladstone  never  did  more  to  endear  him- 
self to  the  people  of  Ireland  by  his  advo- 
cacy of  the  home-rule,  than  has  Lady  Hen- 
ry Somerset  endeared  herself  to  the  com- 
mon people  of  the  "United  Kingdom,"  by 
turning  away  from  the  wealth,  nobility 
and  aristocracy  of  England  to  devote  her 
great  heart,  gifted  brain  and  abundant 
means  to  the  elevation  of  the  masses,  the 
reformation  of  the  wayward,  and  the  re- 
lief of  the  poor. 

There  is  a  fitness  that  must  not  be  ig- 
nored. Frances  E.  Willard  would  never 
have  made  a  dressmaker.  It  is  said  she 
did  not  know  when  her  own  dress  fit,  or 


150         POPULAR  LECTURES. 

whether  becoming;  she  depended  upon 
Anna  Gordon  to  decide  for  her.  But  by 
the  music  of  her  eloquence  and  the  rhythm 
of  her  rhetoric,  she  could  send  the  truth 
echoing  through  the  hearts  of  her  hearers 
like  the  strain  of  a  sweet  melody.  Worth, 
of  Paris,  France,  would  not  have  made  an 
orator,  but  he  could  design  a  robe  to 
please  a  princess  and  make  a  dress  to  fit 
"to  the  queen's  taste."  Then  let  Worths 
make  dresses,  and  Frances  E.  Willards 
charm  the  world  by  their  eloquence. 

Yonder  is  a  boy.  His  soul  is  full  of 
music ;  his  fingers  are  as  much  at  home  on 
the  key-board  of  a  piano  as  a  mocking- 
bird in  its  own  native  orange  grove.  His 
sister  is  a  mathematician;  she  solves  a 
problem  in  mathematics  as  easily  as  her 
brother  plays  a  piece  of  music.  Because 
one  is  a  boy  and  the  other  a  girl,  don't 
make  the  girl  teach  music  and  the  boy 
mathematics.  What  God  has  joined  to- 
gether in  fitness,  let  not  false  education 
put  asunder. 

Recently  I  read  of  a  man  whose  father 
left  him  a  large  business.  Though  an  ex- 
emplary man  he  could  not  make  ends  meet 
in  a  business  out  of  which  his  father  had 
made  a  fortune.  The  man  worried  him- 


THE  NEW  WOMAN  151 

self  into  nervous  prostration.  While  he 
remained  at  home  for  rest,  his  wife  took 
charge  of  the  business  and  made  of  it  a 
great  success.  I  say  let  that  woman  run 
the  business  and  the  man  take  care  of  his 
nerves. 

I  know  a  minister  who  is  a  good  man, 
but  his  strength  is  in  his  limbs.  He's  an 
athlete,  but  turn  him  loose  in  a  field  as 
full  of  ideas  as  a  clover  field  of  blossoms, 
and  he  can't  preach  a  good  sermon.  Let 
Dr.  Anna  Shaw  enter  the  same  field  and 
she  will  gather  blossoms  of  thought  faster 
than  you  can  store  them  away  in  your 
mind.  Some  one  in  my  presence  may  be- 
lieve the  man  should  keep  on  preaching 
and  Anna  Shaw  go  to  the  sewing-room 
and  run  a  sewing  machine;  but  I  say  if 
the  man's  strength  is  in  his  limbs,  and 
Doctor  Shaw's  in  her  head,  let  the  preach- 
er run  the  sewing  machine  and  Doctor 
Shaw  preach  the  gospel  of  righteousness, 
temperance  and  judgment  to  come.  If 
God  fitted  Anna  Shaw's  brain  and  tongue 
for  the  platform,  it  would  be  unwomanly 
in  her  to  make  herself  the  pedal  power  of 
a  sewing  machine.  We  want  successful, 
useful  men  and  women;  and  in  fields  for 
which  God  has  fitted  woman,  don't  be 


152         POPULAR  LECTURES. 

afraid  to  give  her  the  freest,  broadest  lib- 
erty, or  be  uneasy  about  her  unsexing 
herself.  She  has  entered  two  hundred 
fields  in  the  last  one  hundred  years.  Yes, 
I  guess  one  more  field  must  be  added,  for 
I  saw  a  woman  a  few  years  ago  in  an  oc- 
cupation I  had  never  seen  one  engaged  in 
before.  In  a  city  where  I  lectured  a  beau- 
tiful, intelligent  young  lady  was  running 
the  elevator  of  a  hotel,  and  I  was  com- 
pletely "taken  up"  by  her. 

Of  all  the  new  fields  entered  by  woman 
you  cannot  point  to  one  where  she  has  de- 
graded her  womanhood,  or  one  that  has 
not  been  blessed  by  the  touch  of  her  in- 
fluence. 

It  is  true  there  are  fanatics  among  wo- 
men as  there  are  among  men,  but  if  the 
extreme  woman  goes  too  far,  the  average 
woman  will  call  a  halt  every  time.  Fif- 
teen years  ago  I  could  stand  on  Michigan 
Avenue,  Chicago,  in  the  evening  and  with- 
in a  half  hour  count  twenty  young  women, 
dressed  in  bloomers,  riding  bicycles. 
Now  one  may  go  to  Chicago,  spend  a  year 
and  not  see  one.  Woman  is  safe  enough. 

Some  are  uneasy  lest  woman  will  go  be- 
yond her  sphere,  but  I  am  not  so  much 
disturbed  about  the  future  of  woman  as 


THE  NEW  WOMAN  153 

I  am  of  man.  Upon  virtue  and  intelli- 
gence depends  the  future  of  this  republic. 
Have  men  all  the  virtue?  Go  to  the  sa- 
loons; are  they  frequented  by  women? 
No;  men.  Go  to  the  gambling  halls;  are 
they  crowded  with  women?  No;  men.  Go 
to  the  jails  and  penitentiaries;  are  they 
full  of  women?  No;  men.  Go  to  the 
churches;  are  they  crowded  with  men? 
No;  mostly  by  women.  What  about  in- 
telligence? Have  men  all  the  intelligence? 
Two  girls  graduate  from  high  schools  to 
one  boy.  I  am  glad  to  be  living  now ;  one 
hundred  years  hence,  if  I  were  to  be  born 
again,  I  would  want  to  be  a  girl.  Woman 
goes  to  the  door  of  death  to  give  life  to 
man  and  man  should  be  willing  to  let  her 
seek  out  her  own  sphere  for  usefulness. 

Not  long  since  I  read  a  book  called 
"The  New  Woman."  It  was  a  novel  by  an 
Englishman.  In  it  the  author  takes  a 
beautiful  young  girl,  about  eighteen  years 
of  age,  through  a  "Gretna-Green"  experi- 
ence with  a  young  man  of  twenty.  She  is 
the  daughter  of  a  widow;  he,  the  only  son 
of  a  wealthy  London  merchant.  They  run 
away  and  after  a  month's  search  are 
found  by  the  father  of  the  young  man  in 
southern  France.  The  girl  is  sent  home 


154         POPULAR  LECTURES. 

to  her  mother;  the  young  man  sent  to 
India  in  order  to  get  him  far  away  from 
his  wife.  The  novelist  makes  the  young 
man  a  noble  character,  who  is  determined 
to  prove  himself  worthy  of  his  wife,  and 
he  toils  to  send  her  means  for  support. 
The  young  wife  becomes  a  mother,  and 
the  young  husband  toils  the  harder  to 
care  for  his  wife  and  babe.  When  time 
hangs  heavy  on  the  hands  of  the  young 
mother,  she  is  invited  to  join  a  woman's 
club.  Here  she  imbibes  the  spirit  of  the 
new  woman.  She  soon  neglects  her  child 
and  appears  before  the  public  for  a  lec- 
ture. She  wears  a  low  neck  dress,  paints 
her  cheeks,  blondines  her  hair,  smokes 
cigarettes  and  drinks  wine.  A  million- 
aire in  India,  who  loses  his  own  son, 
adopts  the  hero  of  the  novel,  dies  and 
leaves  him  the  great  estate.  Then  the 
young  man  hurries  back  to  his  wife.  He 
arrives  in  the  evening,  but  finds  she  is 
not  at  home;  she  is  delivering  a  lecture 
in  the  opera-house.  He  awaits  her  re- 
turn; a  storm  rages  outside;  at  a  late 
hour  she  enters  the  door,  throws  off  her 
wraps  and  stands  before  her  husband, 
with  blondined  hair,  painted  cheeks,  and 
eyes  red  with  wine.  He  stares,  then 


THE  NEW  WOMAN  155 

starts  toward  her,  when  she  brings  him 
to  a  halt  by  her  strange  manner.  He 
asks,  "Is  not  this  my  wife?"  she  answers, 
"No,  I  am  the  New  Woman."  She  refuses 
to  let  him  see  their  child,  drives  him  out 
into  the  storm,  then  goes  to  her  room,  dis- 
robes and  lies  down  to  dream  of  great 
audiences  and  applause. 

It  is  an  insult  to  any  intelligent  reader. 
Where  is  the  woman,  who  was  a  sweet, 
modest  young  mother,  and  who  today  is 
a  public  speaker,  who  has  neglected  'her 
child,  driven  her  husband  without  cause 
into  the  street,  blondines  her  hair,  paints 
her  cheeks,  drinks  wine  and  smokes  ci- 
garettes? She  would  be  hissed  from  the 
platform.  The  author  simply  shows  his 
extreme  prejudice  in  an  abstract  attempt 
to  prove  that  to  be  a  new  woman  means 
the  surrender  of  all  womanly  graces. 

Let  me  give  you,  not  fiction  but  real 
history,  that  I  may  present  to  you  the 
kind  of  new  woman  I  indorse.  She  was 
born  in  the  State  of  New  York,  was  well 
educated,  and  at  proper  age  married  a 
young  physician.  They  moved  to  a  west- 
efm  city,  where  for  a  while  the  young  phy- 
sician did  well;  but  in  an  evil  hour  he 
commenced  to  drink.  Like  many  a  noble 


156  .        POPULAR  LECTURES. 

young  man,  he  was  too  weak  to  resist  the 
power  of  appetite,  and  soon  his  practice 
left  him.  His  wife,  the  mother  of  two 
boys,  secured  a  position  in  the  public 
schools  and  by  her  ability,  won  her  way 
to  a  principalship.  The  husband  wander- 
ed away,  while  the  brave  wife  and  moth- 
er remained  with  her  children,  but  fol- 
lowed her  husband  with  letters  of  loving 
appeal.  After  long  separation  he  was 
taken  seriously  ill  in  the  far  Southwest. 
She  left  children,  home  and  school  work 
to  go  to  his  bedside.  Her  watchful  care 
brought  him  back  from  the  very  door  of 
death,  and  her  prayers  were  answered  in 
seeing  him  forsake  the  cup  and  hide  for 
safety  in  the  cleft  of  the  Rock  of  Ages. 
He  returned  with  her  to  their  home,  but 
soon  after  passed  away.  She  buried  him 
beneath  the  green  Missouri  sod,  planted 
flowers  about  the  grave,  paid  him  tribute 
of  her  tears,  and  returned  to  her  work. 

In  the  course  of  these  years  she  had 
joined  the  Woman's  Christian  Temper- 
ance Union  and  was  recognized  as  one  of 
its  greatest  leaders. 

Several  years  ago  I  gave  an  address  in 
Hot  Springs,  Ark.  A  card  was  presented 
at  my  door,  which  bore  the  name  of  the 


THE  NEW  WOMAN  157 

heroine  of  my  story.     Going  to  the  parloi 
I  said :  "What  are  you  doing  here?' 

"My  boy  has  been  very  ill  with  rheu- 
matism and  I  have  been  here  with  him 
for  several  weeks.  He  is  better  now  and 
I  return  to  my  work  tomorrow." 

Months  later  she  was  called  again  to  the 
bedside  of  this  son,  and  with  all  the  ten- 
derness of  mother-love,  he  was  cared  for 
until  he  too  passed  over  the  river.  Again 
she  took  up  her  work  on  the  platform, 
where  she  inspired  many  young  women 
to  do  their  best  in  life,  and  called  many 
to  righteousness.  She  was  the  salt  of  the 
earth,  the  embodiment  of  nobility,  the 
soul  of  truth ;  and  not  only  her  own  state 
but  the  whole  country  is  better  because 
she  lived. 

Ask  the  author  of  the  novel  for  the  real 
to  his  story ;  he  cannot  name  her ;  she  does 
not  live  in  England  or  America.  Ask  me 
for  mine  and  I  answer  Clara  C.  Hoffman, 
for  years  the  associate  of  Frances  E.  Wil- 
lard  as  national  officer  of  the  Woman's 
Christian  Temperance  Union,  and  state 
president  of  the  white  ribboners  of  Mis- 
souri. 

In  a  magazine  article  an  author  said: 
"Out  of  one  hundred  and  forty-five  grad- 


158         POPULAR  LECTURES. 

uates  of  a  certain  female  college,  only  fif- 
teen have  married."  A  Chicago  editor 
quoted  the  statement  and  asked:  "Is  it 
possible  education  breeds  in  woman  a  dis- 
taste for  matrimony  and  home  life?"  In 
the  first  place,  I  would  answer:  "You 
never  can  know  how  many  are  going  to 
marry  until  they  are  all  dead." 

Another  explanation  is  that  the  average 
school  girl  goes  out  of  school  at  that  im- 
pulsive age  when  "love  acts  independent 
of  all  law,  and  is  subject  to  nothing  but 
its  own  sweet  will,"  no  matter  how  many 
years  father  has  toiled  to  give  her  the 
comforts  of  life,  nor  how  many  sleepless 
nights  mother  has  spent  to  give  her  rest. 
She  meets  a  young  man ;  he  is  handsome, 
dresses  well  and  talks  fluently.  She  falls 
in  love,  and  sees  in  "love  at  first  sight," 
the  "inspiration  of  all  wisdom."  In  a 
week,  though  she  knows  nothing  of  the 
young  man's  character  or  disposition,  she 
is  ready  to  say  to  her  parents:  "I  appre- 
ciate all  you  have  done  for  me ;  I  love  you 
devotedly,  but  I  have  met  such  a  nice  fel- 
low; he  has  asked  me  to  marry  him,  and 
I  have  accepted;  ta-ta!"  She's  gone.  If 
her  parents  ask  about  the  prospect  for  a 
living,  she  answers  as  did  the  young  girl 


THE  NEW  WOMAN  159 

whose  father  said:  "Mary,  are  you  de- 
termined to  marry  that  young  man?" 

"I  am,  Father." 

"Why,  my  child,  he  has  no  trade,  n:> 
money,  and  very  little  education ;  what  are 
you  going  to  do  for  a  living?" 

She  replied :  "Aunt  is  going  to  give  me 
a  hen  for  a  wedding  present.  You  know, 
Father,  it  is  said  one  hen  will  raise  twen- 
ty chickens  in  a  season.  The  second  sea- 
son, twenty  each,  you  see,  will  be  four 
hundred;  the  third  season,  eight  thou- 
sand ;  the  fourth  season,  one  hundred  and 
sixty  thousand ;  and  the  fifth  season,  only 
five  years,  twenty  each  will  be  three  mill- 
ion, two  hundred  thousand  chickens.  At 
twenty-five  cents  each  they  will  bring 
eight  hundred  thousand  dollars.  We  will 
then  let  you  have  money  enough  to  pay 
off  the  mortgage  on  the  farm  and  we  will 
move  to  the  city." 

To  a  girl  in  love,  every  hen  egg  will 
hatch;  not  a  chicken  will  ever  die  with 
the  gapes;  they  will  all  live  on  love,  like 
herself,  and  everything  will  be  profit. 

The  college  girl  cannot  marry  at  this 
impulsive,  air-castle  age.  She  must  wait 
until  she  gets  through  college.  By  that 
time  she  is  old  enough  for  her  heart  to 


160         POPULAR  LECTURES. 

consult  her  head,  and  her  head  inquires 
into  the  character  and  capacity  of  the 
young  man.  Beside  this,  it  has  been  the 
custom  for  women  to  look  up  to  man,  and 
when  the  college  woman  looks  up,  quite 
often  she  doesn't  see  anybody.  Young 
man,  if  you  want  the  college  girl  you  must 
"get  up"  in  good  qualities  to  where  she 
will  see  you  without  looking  down. 

I  believe  this  higher  education  for  wom- 
en will  tend  to  arrest  the  recklessness  by 
which  life  is  linked  with  life  at  the  mar- 
riage altar.  There  is  a  legend  among 
the  Jews  that  man  and  woman  were  once 
one  being;  an  angei  was  sent  down  from 
Heaven  to  cleave  them  into  two.  Ever 
since,  each  half  has  been  running  around 
looking  for  the  other,  and  the  misfits  have 
been  many  at  the  marriage  altar. 

These  misfits  remind  me  of  an  experi- 
ence when  I  lectured  for  the  Colfax,  Iowa, 
Chautauqua,  some  years  ago.  Frank 
Beard,  the  famous  chalk  talker,  was  there 
and  on  Grand  Army  day  he  was  on  the 
program  for  a  short  talk.  I  was  seated 
by  Mr.  Beard  while  the  speaker  who  pre- 
ceded him  was  telling  war  stories  of  his 
regiment  and  himself.  Frank  Beard  said 
to  me :  "Well !  I  guess  I  can  exaggerate  a 


THE  NEW  WOMAN  161 

little  myself."  It  was  evident  he  intended 
to  measure  up  to  the  occasion.  After  get* 
ting  his  audience  into  proper  spirit  for 
the  manufactured  war  story,  he  said: 

"I  was  in  the  war  myself  and  had  a  few 
experiences.  At  the  battle  of  Shiloh,  I 
was  lying  behind  a  log,  when  I  saw  about 
forty  Confederates  come  dashing  down 
toward  me.  My  first  impulse  was  to  rise, 
make  a  charge  and  capture  the  whole 
forty.  But  I  knew  that  would  not  be 
strategy ;  generals  did  not  manage  a  bat- 
tle that  way  with  such  odds  against  them, 
so  I  determined  to  make  a  detour.  Per- 
haps some  of  you  young  people  do  not 
know  what  a  detour  means.  It  means, 
when  in  such  a  position  as  I  was,  to  get 
up  and  go  the  other  way.  So  I  detoured. 
The  chaplain  of  our  regiment  detoured 
also;  he  could  detour  a  little  faster  than 
I,  and  was  directly  in  front  of  me  when 
a  shell  caught  up  with  me  and  took  my 
leg  off  just  above  the  knee.  You  may  no- 
tice I  walk  very  lame."  (Which  he  did 
just  then  for  effect).  "Well,  the  same  shell 
took  off  the  chaplain's  leg,  and  we  tumbled 
into  a  heap.  The  surgeon  came  up,  and 
having  a  little  too  much  booze,  he  got 
things  mixed ;  he  put  the  chaplain's  leg  on 


162         POPULAR  LECTURES. 

me  and  my  leg  on  the  chaplain.  We  were 
in  good  health,  and  the  legs  grew  on  all 
right.  When  I  recovered,  I  concluded  to 
celebrate  my  restoration  to  usefulness,  so 
I  went  into  a  saloon  and  said  to  the  bar- 
tender, 'Give  me  some  good  old  brandy.' 
He  set  out  the  bottle,  and  I  began  to  fill 
the  glass,  when  that  chaplain's  leg  began 
to  kick.  The  chaplain  was  a  very  ardent 
temperance  man,  and  the  first  thing  I 
knew,  that  temperance  leg  was  making 
for  the  door,  and  I  followed.  But  what 
do  you  think?  As  I  went  out,  I  met  my 
leg  bringing  the  chaplain  in." 

That's  a  very  absurd  story,  a  rather  ri- 
diculous one,  but  if  the  surgeon  had  made 
the  mistake  Mr.  Beard  charged,  he  would 
not  have  made  any  greater  than  is  made 
every  day  at  the  marriage  altar.  Young 
women,  I  would  not  silence  the  love  songs 
in  your  hopeful  hearts,  but  I  would  have 
every  betrothed  girl  demand  of  her  lover 
not  only  a  loving  heart,  but  a  well  round- 
ed character  and  a  reasonable  store  of 
useful  knowledge. 

A  writer  on  this  question  said:  "This 
progress  of  woman  lessens  mother  love  in 
our  country."  Is  that  true?  Before  the 
opening  of  a  southern  exposition,  a  moth- 


THE  NEW  WOMAN  163 

er  of  four  boys  applied  for  and  was  en- 
gaged as  chime  bell  ringer.  Perhaps 
some  saw  in  the  selection  a  woman  as 
brazen  as  the  -bells  she  would  ring.  On 
opening  day  she  played,  "He  who  watches 
over  Israel  neither  slumbers  nor  sleeps"; 
on  New  York  day  she  played,  "Yankee 
Doodle"  and  "Hail  Columbia;"  on  Penn- 
sylvania day,  "The  Star  Spangled  Ban- 
ner;" on  Kentucky  day,  "My  Old  Ken- 
tucky Home;"  on  Maryland  day,  "Mary- 
land, my  Maryland;"  on  Georgia  day, 
"The  Girl  I  Left  Behind  Me;"  on  colored 
people's  day,  the  airs  of  the  old  planta- 
tion; on  newsboy's  day,  "The  Bowery" 
and  "Sunshine  of  Paradise  Alley;"  then 
"Nearer,  my  God,  to  Thee,"  "Rock  of 
Ages,  Cleft  For  Me,"  soothed  the  tired 
Christian  heart.  One  afternoon  she  took 
two  of  her  boys  into  the  belfry-tower ;  one 
seven,  the  other  about  three  years  of  age. 
When  they  tired  of  the  confinement,  the 
older  boy  said:  "Mother,  can  we  go  out 
for  a  walk?" 

"Yes,  son,  but  don't  let  go  little  broth- 
er's hand." 

She  was  so  absorbed  by  the  music  of 
her  bells  she  did  not  notice  the  passing  of 
time  until  the  night  shadows  began  to 


164          POPULAR  ECTURES. 

gather.  Then  her  older  boy  came  run- 
ning up  in  the  tower  crying,  "Mother,  I've 
lost  little  brother!" 

She  quit  her  bells  and  running  through 
the  grounds  set  every  policeman  looking 
for  her  boy ;  then  she  hurried  back  to  her 
bells  and  'began  to  play  "Home,  Sweet 
Home."  It  is  said  the  bells  never  rang 
so  clear  and  sweet.  Over  and  over  again 
she  played,  "Home,  Sweet  Home;"  some 
wondered  why  the  tune  did  not  change. 
At  last,  while  trembling  with  dread  and 
eyes  filled  with  tears,  she  heard  a  sweet 
voice  say,  "Mama,  I  hear  de  bells  and  I 
tome  to  you."  The  mother,  turning  from 
the  bells,  clasped  the  child  to  her  bosom 
and  thanked  God  for  its  safety. 

It  is  said  everything  is  undergoing  a 
constant  change,  but  until  the  chime  bells 
ring  in  the  eternal  morning  mother  love 
will  live  on,  the  same  unchanging  devo- 
tion. Several  years  ago  I  stood  on  Port- 
land Heights,  Oregon,  in  the  evening,  and 
saw  Mount  Hood  in  its  snow-capped  ma- 
jesty, when  the  stars  seemed  to  be  set  as 
jewels  in  its  crown.  If  you  ask  me  by 
what  force  that  giant  was  lifted  from 
the  level  of  the  sea  till  its  dome  touched 
the  sky,  I  cannot  answer  you,  but  I  know 


THE  NEW  WOMAN  165 

it  stands  there,  a  towering  sentinel  to 
traveler  on  land  and  sailor  on  the  sea.  So 
mother  love,  which  no  one  can  solve,  ex- 
ists as  unchanging  as  the  love  of  God; 
broad  enough  and  strong  enough  to  meet 
all  the  changing  conditions  of  time. 

While  I  did  not  make  this  lecture  to 
include  the  suffrage  question,  I  cannot 
turn  away  from  the  new  woman  without 
a  word  about  the  ballot  for  women.  It 
is  no  longer  a  question  of  right,  but  wheth- 
er or  not  men  will  grant  the  right.  This  I 
believe  men  will  do  when  the  sentiment 
of  women  is  strong  enough  to  force  the 
issue.  "Taxation  without  representation" 
is  no  less  a  tyranny  to  women  than  to 
men.  I  was  the  guest  of  a  wealthy  wid- 
ow, who  paid  more  taxes  than  any  man 
in  the  county,  yet  a  foreigner,  who  had 
been  in  this  country  less  than  three  years, 
who  had  not  a  dollar  of  property  nor  a 
patriotic  impulse,  laid  down  the  hoe  in 
the  garden,  and  going  to  the  polls,  voted 
additional  tax  upon  the  woman  he  worked 
for ;  and  the  saloon  influence  upon  her  two 
boys,  while  she  had  no  voice  in  what  taxes 
her  property,  or  what  might  tax  her  heart 
by  the  ruin  of  a  son.  There  being  no 
question  about  woman's  right  to  the  ballot, 


166         POPULAR  LECTURES. 

there  should  be  no  hesitation  on  man's 
part  in  bestowing  the  right. 

I  now  turn  from  the  new  woman  to  the 
old  man.  I  do  not  mean  the  man  old  in 
years ;  for  him  I  have  only  words  of  honor 
and  praise.  I  mean  the  man  set  in  old 
ways  and  habits  that  neutralizes  the  pro- 
gress and  wastes  the  forces  of  the  republic. 
At  the  door  of  this  old  man  lie  the  causes 
of  commercial  disturbances,  depression  in 
trade  and  recurring  panics  more  than  in 
the  causes  stressed  by  partisans  for  po- 
litical effect. 

We  should  never  have  hard  times  in 
this  country.  We  live  in  the  best  land 
beneath  the  sky.  It  has  been  well  said: 
"This  is  God's  last  best  effort  for  man." 
We  have  soil  rich  enough  to  grass  and 
grain  the  world.  Our  vast  domain  is  inlaid 
with  gold,  silver,  iron  and  lead  of  bound- 
less worth.  Deep  in  the  bosom  of  Colum- 
bia are  fountains  of  gas  and  oil,  sufficient 
to  light  and  heat  our  homes  for  a  century 
to  come.  Within  these  healthful  lines  of 
latitude  is  room  enough  not  only  to  house 
all  the  peoples  of  the  earth,  but  to  sty  all 
the  pigs,  stable  all  the  horses,  and  corral 
all  the  cattle  of  the  world. 

To  have  all  these  gifts  crowned  with 


THE  NEW  WOMAN  167 

sunshine  and  shower,  free  from  pestilence 
and  famine,  we  are  the  most  prosperous 
and  should  be  the  best  contented  people  on 
the  earth.  In  such  a  land  there  should 
be  perpetual  peace  and  plentiful  prosper- 
ity. Yet  we  have  hard  times  after  hard 
times,  and  panic  after  panic.  Why  is 
this?  If  I  could  tell  you  why,  it  would 
repay  for  the  time  and  money  spent  to 
hear  this  lecture.  During  the  great  panic 
in  the  nineties  Mr.  W.  C.  Whitney  of  New 
York,  wrote  a  letter  to  a  leading  New 
York  daily  in  which  he  said:  "There  are 
just  two  causes  for  this  panic;  too  much 
silver  and  too  much  tariff."  I  do  not 
disparage  these  two  problems,  but  I  do 
say  Mr.  Whitney  had  a  very  narrow  view 
of  a  panic.  Like  many  another  man,  he 
had  a  thorough  knowledge  of  certain 
things  and  was  totally  ignorant  of  others. 
A  Chief  Justice  of  the  United  States 
was  riding  in  a  carriage  with  his  family 
when  a  shaft  broke.  It  was  not  broken 
short  off,  but  shivered  by  contact  with  a 
post.  The  Chief  Justice  had  no  strings 
and  was  in  a  dilemma.  A  negro  boy 
passed  by,  dressed  in  rags,  whistling  a 
merry  tune.  The  great  jurist  hailed  the 
boy,  saying,  "Boy,  have  you  a  string?" 


168         POPULAR  LECTURES. 

"No,  boss,  what's  de  matter?" 

"I  have  broken  the  shaft  of  my  car- 
riage," said  the  Justice. 

"Yas,  sir,  I  guess  you  is,  boss.  Is  you 
got  a  knife?  If  you  is,  I  think  I  can  fix 
it  for  you." 

Taking  the  knife,  he  jumped  the  fence 
and  cut  withes  from  a  sapling,  with  which 
he  lashed  a  lath  to  the  shaft. 

"I  guess  da'll  git  you  home,  boss." 

"That's  a  good  job,"  said  the  Judge; 
"why  didn't  I  think  of  that?" 

The  boy  replied:  "I  don't  know,  sir, 
'cept  some  folks  know  more  than  others." 

That  boy  did  know  more  than  the  Chief 
Justice  of  the  United  States  about  mend- 
ing a  broken  shaft.  I  think  I  know  a 
thing  or  two  about  panics  which  Mr. 
Whitney  did  not  seem  to  have  learned. 
Let  me  give  you  two  causes  for  panics. 
They  are  not  all  but  they  rank  with  Mr. 
Whitney's. 

First,  the  extravagance  of  the  people. 
When  times  are  good  and  money  plenti- 
ful, people  are  extravagant.  They  buy 
everything  and  pay  enormous  prices.  A 
horse,  Axtell,  brings  his  owner  one  hun- 
dred and  five  thousand  dollars;  a  two- 
year-old  colt,  Arion,  one  hundred  and 


THE  NEW  WOMAN  169 

twenty-five  thousand.  A  town  site  is  lo- 
cated in  a  barren  waste  and  lots  sell  at 
ten  to  one  hundred  dollars  a  front  foot. 
All  kinds  of  wildcat  schemes  are  pro- 
moted, and  the  people  bite  at  the  bait.  An 
era  of  extravagance  is  on  and  "sight  un- 
seen" investments  are  made.  Several 
years  ago  my  brother  said  to  me:  "Are 
you  going  West  soon,  as  far  as  Kansas 
City?"  When  I  replied  that  I  was  he 
said :  "I  have  never  been  in  that  city  but 
I  have  two  lots  there  I  wish  you  would 
look  at  and  ascertain  their  value."  He 
advised  me  to  call  on  a  certain  real  estate 
agent,  who  would  show  me  the  lots.  When 
I  called  on  the  agent  a  little  while  later, 
he  informed  me  the  lots  could  not  be  seen 
until  a  dry  spell  took  off  the  water.  Two 
lots  my  brother  never  saw  and  never  sold ; 
decidedly  "watered  stock." 

A  man  with  a  thousand  dollars  buys  a 
five  thousand  dollar  lot.  He  knows  he 
can't  pay  for  it,  but  there's  a  boom  and 
he  expects  to  sell  for  six  thousand  before 
the  second  payment  is  due.  He  doesn't 
sell.  When  he  can't  sell  he  goes  to  the 
bank  to  borrow  money  to  make  the  pay- 
ment; he  finds  there  many  more  in  the 
same  condition  as  himself.  The  banks 


170         POPULAR  LECTURES. 

see  the  trouble  coming  and  will  not  loan. 
When  the  banks  refuse  to  loan  the  depos- 
itors get  scared  and  take  their  money  out 
of  the  bank.  During  that  great  panic  in 
the  nineties  three  hundred  millions  of 
dollars  were  taken  out  of  circulation  with- 
in four  months  by  depositors  who  were 
scared.  Then  the  country  gets  flat  on  its 
back  with  a  panic.  A  friend  said  to  me, 
during  the  great  depression:  "Don't  you 
think  it  will  be  over  soon?"  I  replied: 
"Let  a  man  have  typhoid  fever  until  re- 
duced to  a  skeleton;  let  the  doctor  call 
some  morning  toward  the  close  of  the  long 
siege  and  say,  'The  fever  is  broken,  get  up 
and  go  to  work.'  Can  the  man  obey  the 
doctor?  No;  he  must  have  chicken-broth 
and  gruel,  and  slowly  regain  his  strength." 
So  when  a  panic  comes  we  must  creep 
out,  and  we  were  so  deep  in  the  nineties  it 
took  a  long  time  to  recover. 

When  a  panic  comes  however,  the  ex- 
travagance ceases;  everybody  gets  stingy. 
A  man  with  five  thousand  dollars  doesn't 
buy  a  five  thousand  dollar  lot.  He  doesn't 
buy  anything ;  his  wife  must  wear  the  old 
bonnet,  and  his  church  assessment  is  re- 
duced. Then  the  tide  turns  and  the  coun- 
try recovers  from  its  extravagance.  But 


THE  NEW  WOMAN  171 

when  times  get  good,  crops  are  fine  and 
money  plentiful,  the  people  begin  again; 
women  spending  their  money  for  dry 
goods,  men  for  wet  goods;  another  era 
of  extravagance  is  on  and  another  panic 
coming. 

Mr.  Whitney  said:  "Too  much  silver 
and  too  much  tariff."  All  the  gold  and 
all  the  silver  money  in  this  country  would 
not  pay  the  old  man's  drink  and  tobacco 
bill  for  five  years.  We  drink,  smoke  and 
chew  up  all  the  money  in  this  country, 
gold,  silver  and  paper,  every  seven  years. 
Last  year  we  spent  about  six  millions  for 
missions;  one  hundred  and  fifty  millions 
for  churches;  two  hundred  and  seventy- 
five  millions  for  schools;  and  eighteen 
hundred  millions  for  intoxicating  liquors 
and  tobacco.  Awake,  0  Conscience!  and 
pour  out  thy  saving  influence  for  the  heal- 
ing of  the  nation. 

We  live  in  a  marvelous  country.  What 
this  republic  has  accomplished  in  one  hun- 
dred and  thirty-eight  years,  is  the  wonder 
of  the  world.  At  the  close  of  the  Revolu- 
tionary War  those  who  survived  were 
poor,  wounded,  bleeding  people,  occupying 
only  the  eastern  rim  of  a  wilderness 
waste,  while  wild  beast  and  wilder  In- 


172         POPULAR  LECTURES. 

dians  roamed  the  mighty  expanse  to  the 
western  ocean.  From  the  penniless  pov- 
erty of  then,  has  come  the  wonderful 
wealth  of  now.  Where  the  tangled  wil- 
derness choked  the  earth,  now  fields  of 
golden  grain  dot  the  plains,  carpets  of 
clover  cover  the  hillsides,  cities  hum  with 
the  music  of  commerce,  while  rivers  and 
railroads  carry  rich  harvests  to  the  har- 
bors of  every  land.  Emerson  wrote  bet- 
ter than  he  knew  when  he  wrote: 
"So  I  uncover  the  land,  which  of  old  time 

I  hid  in  the  west, 
As  the  sculptor  uncovers  his  statue,  when 

he  has  wrought  his  best." 
Yet  grand  as  this  country  has  grown 
to  be,  "the  eagle  of  liberty  can  never  reach 
the  pinion  heights  its  wings  were  made 
to  measure,"  while  the  shell  of  wasted  re- 
sources to  which  I  have  referred  bows  low 
its  head.  Money  won't  save  us.  Baby- 
lon had  her  gold  standard;  her  images 
were  made  of  gold.  Media,  Persia,  had 
her  free  silver  standard ;  her  images  were 
made  of  silver.  Rome  had  her  gold,  her 
silver,  brass  and  iron;  yet  they  were  all 
dashed  to  pieces  on  the  world's  highway. 
"In  the  hollow  of  the  hand  of  God  is  the 
destiny  of  this  republic,"  and  we  cannot 


THE  NEW  WOMAN  173 

buy  Him  with  money.  The  wealth  that 
satisfies  the  ruler  of  nations  is  character. 
Some  one  said  a  few  years  ago,  and  it 
went  the  rounds  of  the  press:  "The  ques- 
tion during  the  Civil  War  was,  shall  we 
have  two  governments  or  one;  now  the 
question  is,  shall  we  have  any?"  I  quote 
to  you  with  as  much  confidence  as  any 
mortal  ever  proclaimed  a  truth:  "This 
republic  will  never  fail  or  fall  until  God 
deserts  it,  and  God  will  not  desert  it  until 
we  desert  Him." 

"Come  the  world  in  arms, 
We'll  defeat,  and  then  pursue; 
Nothing  can  our  flag  destroy, 
While  to  God  and  self  we're  true." 

I  am  not  one  of  those  who  believe  our 
war  with  Spain  was  an  accident.  For 
Dewey  to  cross  that  dead  line  at  mid- 
night; when  morning  dawned  to  find 
mines  of  death  behind  him,  an  enemy's 
fleet  of  eleven  ships  before  him,  these  sup- 
ported by  shores  belted  with  batteries; 
and  yet  within  six  hours  sink  or  disable 
every  ship  in  the  fleet,  silence  the  forts, 
lift  the  star  spangled  banner  in  triumph 
to  wave,  and  not  have  a  warship  sunk,  nor 
a  sailor  killed,  means  more  than  the  mere 


174         POPULAR  LECTURES. 

skill  of  a  Commodore.  Some  one  may  say 
we  had  a  better  navy.  Spain  didn't  think 
so.  Before  the  war  the  Spanish  papers 
said :  "The  United  States  is  bluffing.  She 
can't  go  to  war  with  us.  She  has  only 
twenty-five  thousand  soldiers,  and  they 
are  kept  out  west  to  control  cowboys  and 
Indians.  Then  the  South  is  waiting  for 
an  opportunity  to  break  out  in  rebellion." 
Columbus  discovered  America  in  1492; 
Spain  didn't  discover  the  United  States 
until  1898. 

Do  you  ask  what  we  are  to  do  with  the 
Philippine  Islands?  I  cannot  tell  you 
what  is  best,  but  I  do  know  we  didn't 
want  them.  The  day  Dewey  sailed  from 
Hong  Kong  to  Manila  Bay,  if  Spain  had 
said  to  the  United  States:  "Here  are  the 
Philippine  Islands,  we  would  like  to  make 
you  a  present  of  them,"  the  United  States 
would  have  replied,  "We  thank  you,  but 
decline  the  offer."  Not  one  man  in  ten 
in  this  country  would  have  voted  to  take 
them.  But  the  next  day  we  had  them, 
had  fought  to  get  them ;  and  I  believe  the 
same  superhuman  power  that  took  from 
Spain,  the  Netherlands,  Flanders,  Malac- 
ca, Ceylon,  Java,  Portugal,  Holland,  San 
Domingo,  Louisiana,  Florida,  Trinidad, 


THE  NEW  WOMAN  175 

Mexico,  Venezuela,  Columbia,  Ecuador, 
Peru,  Bolivia,  Chili,  Argentina,  Uruguay, 
Paraguay,  Patagonia,  Guatemala,  Hondu- 
ras, San  Salvador,  Nicaragua,  Porto  Rico, 
Cuba,  and  "then  some,"  took  away  from 
Spain  the  Philippine  Islands  and  gave 
them  to  us,  that  the  home,  the  church  and 
the  school  might  be  established  in  the  Is- 
lands. 

Perhaps  some  of  you  think  I  am  get- 
ting off  my  subject.  I  am  not;  I  am  talk- 
ing now  about  the  old  man,  Uncle  Sam, 
and  his  mission  in  the  world. 

It  is  the  opinion  of  many  that  we  are 
under  no  obligation  to  the  islands  of  the 
sea,  but  these  conservative  souls  should 
not  forget  that  we  are  not  only  citizens  of 
the  United  States,  but  of  the  globe  on 
which  we  dwell  and  of  the  universe  of 
God.  The  world  in  which  we  live,  lives 
because  of  the  light  and  heat  it  receives 
from  other  worlds.  If  the  rolling  sun  in 
the  heavens  is  under  obligation  to  furnish 
light  for  our  pathway,  heat  for  our  soil 
and  warmth  for  our  blood,  are  we  not  un- 
der obligation  to  carry  the  light  of  civili- 
zation to  the  people  whose  shores  and 
ours  are  washed  by  the  same  waters  ?  If 
the  full  orbed  moon  is  under  obligation 


176         POPULAR  LECTURES. 

to  pour  its  silver  into  our  nights,  and  lift 
the  tides  until  our  rivers  are  full,  are  not 
we  under  obligation  to  lift  the  tide  of  hope 
in  the  heart  of  oppressed  humanity,  and 
pour  the  light  of  intelligence  into  the 
night  of  ignorance  ?  Did  God  give  us  this 
grand  country,  with  its  boundless  re- 
sources, for  us  to  draw  our  ocean  skirts 
about  our  greatness  and  pass  by  our 
bruised  and  bleeding  neighbor,  lying  half 
dead  on  life's  Jericho  road?  If  so,  then 
call  back  our  proud  eagle  of  liberty  from 
its  pinion  flight  through  the  skies  of  na- 
tional achievement,  and  make  our  national 
emblem  the  barnyard  fowl  that  crows  in 
the  day  dawn  as  if  creating  light  instead 
of  noise,  and  then  runs  for  his  roost  when 
the  shadows  fall. 

The  Bible  says  we  are  fellow  workers 
with  God.  What  does  this  fellowship 
imply?  It  means  there  are  some  things 
we  can't  do,  which  God  must  do  for  us, 
and  some  things  we  can  do  He  won't  do 
for  us.  He  puts  the  coal  in  the  earth; 
we  must  dig  and  blast  it  out.  He  puts 
oil  beneath  the  soil;  we  must  bore  into 
its  wells  and  pump  it  out.  He  gives  us 
the  earth  and  "the  fullness  thereof;"  we 
must  do  the  sowing  and  reaping.  He 


THE  NEW  WOMAN  177 

puts  electricity  in  the  air ;  we  must  bridle, 
saddle  and  harness  it.  He  empties  the 
clouds  into  the  -basins  of  the  earth  and 
gives  us  oceans,  gulfs  and  lakes;  but  we 
must  build  boats  to  ride  them.  He  puts 
humanity  on  the  earth  and  bids  us  love 
our  neighbor  as  ourselves. 

Who  is  my  neighbor?  Some  seem  to 
think  only  those  who  live  in  our  immedi- 
ate community.  I  read  of  a  minister  of  a 
city  church  who  called  upon  one  of  his 
country  members  for  a  contribution  for 
foreign  missionary  work.  The  country 
brother  said:  "I  don't  believe  in  foreign 
missions,  and  I  must  say,  'No'." 

"Brother,"  the  pastor  said,  "the  Bible 
says  you  should  love  your  neighbor  as 
yourself." 

"I  do  love  my  neighbors." 

"Who  are  your  neighbors?" 

"Those  whose  farms  adjoin  mine,  and 
perhaps,  those  whose  farms  adjoin  theirs*** 

"How  far  do  you  own  eastward?" 

"To  the  third  fence  yonder." 

"How  far  do  you  own  toward  the  west?" 

"About  a  half  mile?" 

"How  deep  do  you  own  into  the  earth  ?" 

"Well,  I  never  thought  of  that,  but 
about  half-way,  I  guess." 


178         POPULAR  LECTURES. 

"Well,  my  brother,  I  am  asking  you  to 
help  your  neighbor  China,  who  joins  your 
line  below." 

*  I  have  a  friend  with  plenty  of  this 
world's  goods,  and  not  a  child.  When 
approached  by  the  ladies  of  the  Foreign 
Mission  Society  he  said:  "I  do  not  give 
to  foreign  missions;  when  you  want  any- 
thing for  home  missions  I'll  help  you." 
Perhaps  he  would ;  but  many  of  that  class 
are  represented  by  a  colored  man  of  whom 
I  heard  a  Methodist  bishop  tell.  He  said 
to  a  friend :  "Dat  wife  of  mine  is  got  mon- 
ey on  de  brain ;  it's  money,  money  all  the 
time.  I  can't  go  whar  she  is,  but  she's 
axing  me  for  money.  She's  jest  sho'ly 
gwine  to  run  me  to  the  lunatic  'sylum  ef 
she  don't  quit  her  beggin'  me  for  money/' 

The  friend  asked:  "What  does  she  do 
with  so  much  money?" 

The  colored  brother  hesitated  a  minute, 
and  said :  "She  don't  do  nuffin  wid  it,  caze 
I  ain't  never  give  her  none  yet." 

My  friend  who  opposes  foreign  missions 
said:  "So  much  you  give  never  gets 
there."  Yes;  and  so  many  seed  the  far- 
mer puts  into  the  ground  never  grow,  and 
so  the  farmer  says, 


THE  NEW  WOMAN  179 

"Put  five  grains  in  every  hill: 

One  for  the  cut-worm,  one  for  the  crow, 

One  to  blight,  and  two  to  grow." 

And  you  cannot  tell  which  will  grow. 
A  weed  grew  by  the  wayside  in  the  old 
world.  All  it  did  was  to  furnish  seed  for 
the  wind,  and  worry  for  the  farmer.  But 
one  blustering  day,  the  wind  carried  a 
seed  from  the  wayside  weed  into  a  flor- 
ist's garden;  it  sprouted,  rooted  and 
bloomed.  The  gardener  was  impressed 
by  the  beautiful  coloring  of  the  blossom, 
so  he  nurtured,  transplanted  and  cultivat- 
ed it  into  a  beautiful  flower.  It  was  from 
this  bush,  once  a  weed,  Queen  Victoria 
selected  the  flower  she  carried  when  she 
entered  the  Crystal  Palace  to  meet  the 
world's  representatives. 

When  Delia  Laughlin  went  astray,  her 
father  drove  her  from  his  door.  She  was 
of  that  temperament  that  must  either  go 
to  the  heights  or  to  the  depths,  and  to  the 
depths  she  went.  Down  the  rapids  of  a 
sinful  life  her  steps  were  swift.  Along 
the  Bowery  she  made  her  way  to  Five 
Points,  where  thieves  and  drunkards 
dwelt.  It  was  said  she  could  drink  deep- 
er, curse  louder,  and  fight  fiercer  than 


180         POPULAR  LECTURES. 

any  inmate  of  the  most  wicked  spot  in 
New  York  City.  Mrs.  Whittemore  went 
one  day  on  her  mission  of  mercy  through 
the  slums.  She  sought  some  one  to  ac- 
company her  who  knew  the  deepest  haunts 
of  the  wicked.  Delia  Laughlin  was  re- 
commended to  her.  Mrs.  Whittemore, 
with  her  Bible  in  one  hand  and  a  fragrant 
rose  in  the  other,  made  her  rounds.  She 
was  deeply  impressed  with  the  intellect 
and  culture,  as  well  as  the  beauty  of  the 
wayward  girl  who  had  been  her  guide 
through  the  slums.  "Dear  girl,"  she  said ; 
"you  are  too  bright  and  beautiful  to  be 
down  here.  I  wish  you  would  come  to 
see  me  at  the  Door  of  Hope  Mission,"  and 
slipping  a  coin  and  the  white  rose  into 
the  soiled  fingers  she  said,  "Good-bye." 

The  girl  loved  flowers,  so  she  took  the 
white  rose  to  her  room  and  put  it  in  wa- 
ter. Then  with  the  coin  she  went  to  drown 
her  misery  in  drink.  Forty-eight  hours 
later  she  had  slept  off  the  debauch,  and 
taking  the  flower  from  the  vase  she  said : 
"Ah !  that  represents  my  life.  Once  I  was 
as  pure  as  the  rose  when  the  good  woman 
gave  it  to  me.  Those  withered  petals  rep- 
resent the  withered  graces  of  my  life." 
From  out  that  little  flower  an  arrow  went 


THE  NEW  WOMAN  181 

to  the  heart  of  Delia  Laughlin.    She  took 
the  street  car  and  went  to  the  Door  of 
Hope  Mission.    Mrs.  Whittemore  met  her 
and  they  talked  together.    While  the  girl 
wept  Mrs.  Whittemore  prayed;  she  said: 
"O  God,  this  poor  girl  has  no  other  friend 
than  you.       Her  father's  home  is  closed 
against  her.  You  have  promised,  when  fa- 
ther and  mother  forsake,  you  will  take  the 
deserted  one.  Won't  you  take  her  now?" 
And  God  did  take  her;  from  that  houi 
she  was  safe  in  the  cleft  of  the  Rock  of 
Ages.    When  she  addressed  twelve  hun- 
dred inmates  of  Auburn  prison,  a  repor- 
ter said:  "Never  did  John  Wesley,  John 
Knox,  or  Martin  Luther  do  greater  work 
for    the    Master."    When    laid    in    her 
casket  in  the  Door  of  Hope  Mission  a  few 
years  later,  a  New    York    paper    said: 
"Never  did  a  fairer  face  or  more  eloquent 
tongue  do  work  in  slum  life  than  Delia 
Laughlin." 

"The  stone  o'er  which  you  trample, 
May  be  a  diamond  in  the  rough. 

It  may  never  never  sparkle, 

Though  made  of  diamond  stuff. 

"Because  someone  must  find  it, 
If  it's  ever  found; 


182         POPULAR  LECTURES. 

And  then  someone  must  grind  it, 
If  it's  ever  ground. 

"But  when  it's  found,    and   when   it's 
ground, 

And  when  it's  burnished  bright; 
Then  henceforth  a  diamond  crowned 

'Twill  shine  with  lustrous  light." 
You  can't  tell  what  seed  will  grow. 

After  the  Civil  War  I  lived  for  two 
years  in  Richmond,  Kentucky.  During 
that  time  the  Klu  Klux  movement  broke 
out  in  fury.  Men  were  hanged,  others 
whipped  and  driven  from,  the  county. 
On  my  way  to  market  one  morning  I  saw 
a  man  hanging  from  a  limb  of  a  tree  in 
the  court-house  yard.  On  his  sleeve  was 
pinned  a  piece  of  paper,  on  which  was 
written,  "Let  no  one  touch  this  body  until 
the  sun  goes  down."  All  day  that  body 
hung  there  and  not  an  officer  of  the  law 
dared  to  cut  the  rope.  Such  was  the 
reign  of  terror  no  one  offered  a  protest. 
One  Saturday  night  a  young  man  named 
Byron  was  hanged  in  the  same  court-house 
yard.  He  was  the  only  son  of  a  widowed 
mother,  and  he  begged  the  mob  to  let  him 
live  for  his  mother's  sake.  Sunday  morn- 


THE  NEW  WOMAN  183 

ing  several  empty  bottles  lay  about  the 
tree,  indicating  that  the  men  were  drink- 
ing who  did  the  deed.  The  evening  after 
the  hanging  I  gave  an  address  in  the 
Methodist  Church  for  the  Good  Templars. 
I  had  no  thought  of  referring  to  the  hang- 
ing of  young  Byron,  but  in  showing  up 
the  evils  of  drink,  those  empty  bottles 
came  to  my  mind,  and  I  could  imagine  the 
old  mother  then  weeping  over  her  dead 
boy.  Without  considering  the  consequen- 
ces I  denounced  the  Klu  Klux  and  the 
cjowardice  that  permitted  such  lawless- 
ness. After  the  lecture  a  young  man  of 
influence  advised  me  to  leave  at  once  and 
not  dare  spend  the  night  in  the  town.  I 
felt  sure  the  Klan  could  not  be  called  to- 
gether that  night,  so  I  ventured  to  spend 
the  night  at  home.  About  eleven  o'clock 
that  night  the  front  gate  was  opened,  and 
tramp,  tramp,  tramp,  came  the  sound  of 
feet  toward  the  cottage,  which  was  about 
forty  feet  from  the  street.  It  seemed  as 
if  all  was  over  with  me,  when  the  "pluck" 
of  a  string  introduced  a  serenade  from  the 
string  band  of  the  little  city.  Since  the 
daughters  of  Judah  hung  their  harps  up« 
on  the  willows,  no  sweeter  music  has  ever 
fallen  upon  mortal  ears  than  I  heard  that 


184         POPULAR  LECTURES. 

night  from  the  string  band  of  Richmond, 
Kentucky. 

I  do  not  know  how  much  my  speaking 
out  against  Klu  Klux  had  to  do  with  ar- 
resting the  outlawry  that  made  the  roads 
rattle  with  the  clatter  of  the  hoofs  of 
horses  at  midnight  raids,  but  I  do  know 
young  Byron  was  the  last  man  hanged  by 
the  Klu  Klux  in  Madison  county,  and  may 
I  not  hope  the  unpremeditated  protest 
made  in  that  Sunday  evening  address, 
helped  in  some  measure  to  bring  about  the 
transformation,  and  contribute  a  mite  to 
the  public  sentiment  that  has  made  Rich- 
mond a  saloonless  place  in  which  to  live. 

You  cannot  tell  what  seed  will  grow. 
Already  out  of  the  new  woman  movement 
has  come  a  host  led  by  such  wo- 
men as  Frances  E.  Willard,  Mary  A. 
Livermore,  Clara  Hoffman,  Dr.  Anna 
Shaw,  Jane  Addams,  Maude  Ballington 
Booth,  Susan  B.  Anthony,  and  in  our  own 
state,  Frances  E.  Beauchamp.  These  and 
many  more  have  been  springing  the  bolts 
that  have  barred  woman  from  spheres  of 
great  usefulness. 

Allow  me  to  say,  I  have  no  patience 
with  the  mannish  woman  (and  about  as 
little  use  for  a  feminine  man) ;  but  if  this 


THE  NEW  WOMAN  185 

old  world  is  ever  to  be  redeemed  it  is  be- 
cause He  who  sitteth  on  the  throne  has 
said:  "Behold  I  make  all  things  new." 

Oh!  for  a  new  man,  who  will  stop  the 
waste  of  wealth  and  destruction  of  morals 
to  which  I  have  referred.  Oh!  for  the 
day  when  "each  sex  will  be  the  equal  of 
the  other  in  the  average,  each  above  the 
other  in  specialties;  when  each  can  see 
in  the  other  a  source  of  inspiration,"  and 
both  worthy  to  have  been  created  in  the 
beginning  a  "little  lower  than  the  angels" 
and  in  the  end  to  be  crowned  with  glory 
and  honor. 


THE  SAFE  SIDE  OF  LIFE  FOR  YOUNG 
MEN.    A  PLEA  FOR  TOTAL  AB- 
STINENCE   AND    A    BET- 
TER LIFE. 

I  do  not  assert  that  everyone  who  drinks 
intoxicating  liquor  as  a  beverage  will  be- 
come a  drunkard,  but  I  do  come  before 
this  audience  to  hold  up  total-abstinence 
as  safer  and  better  for  practice.  Drunk- 
ards are  made  of  moderate  drinkers; 
drunkards  are  never  made  of  total  ab- 
stainers. One  may  drink  and  never  get 
drunk;  one  cannot  get  drunk  who  never 
drinks.  Take  away  every  drunkard  from 
the  earth  today  and  moderate  drinking 
will  soon  create  another  supply ;  but  sweep 
all  drunkenness  from  the  world,  let  total- 
abstinence  be  the  absolute  rule  and  the 
last  drunkard  will  have  debased  his  body, 
ruined  his  character,  and  doomed  his  soul. 

Since  running  the  risk  of  being  a  mod- 
erate drinker  is  so  great,  I  commend  to  the 
young  people  before  me  the  caution  of  the 
187 


188         POPULAR  LECTURES. 

Scotch  minister,  who,  when  called  upon  to 
marry  a  couple,  said:  "My  young  friends, 
marriage  is  a  blessing  to  a  great  many 
persons;  it's  a  curse  to  some;  it's  a  risk 
for  everybody ;  will  you  take  the  venture?" 
I  presume  they  did.  I  do  not  believe  the 
use  of  intoxicating  liquor  as  a  beverage 
is  a  benefit  to  anyone,  yet  for  argument's 
sake  I  will  permit  one  who  drinks  to  say: 
"Moderate  drinking  is  a  benefit  to  a  few 
persons ;  it's  a  curse  to  a  great  many ;  it's 
a  risk  for  everybody ;  let's  take  a  drink !" 
Against  this  I  affirm  that  total  abstinence 
is  a  blessing  to  millions;  it's  a  curse  to 
nobody ;  it's  safe  and  right  for  everybody ; 
then  let's  take  the  pledge  and  God  help- 
ing us,  let's  keep  it. 

A  very  comforting  reply  to  the  infidel 
who  claims  there  will  be  no  hereafter  is 
the  inscription  on  the  tomb  of  a  faithful 
Christian : 

"If  there's  another  world,  he's  in  bliss; 
If  not,  he's  made  the  best  of  this." 

If  there  is  no  hereafter,  to  say  the  least 
the  Christian  is  even  with  the  infidel, 
while  if  there  is  a  hereafter  it's  bad  for 
the  infidel.  If  a  moderate  drinker  has 
sufficient  self-control  to  escape  being  a 
drunkard,  the  total  abstainer  is  equally 


SAFE  SIDE  OF  LIFE          189 

safe ;  but  if  the  moderate  drinker  loses  his 
self-control  and  becomes  a  drunkard  his 
doom  is  sealed.  The  safe  definition  of 
temperance  is:  "Moderation  in  regard  to 
things  useful  and  right,  total-abstinence 
in  regard  to  things  hurtful  and  wrong." 
Is  alcoholic  liquor  as  a  beverage  hurtful 
and  wrong?  It's  the  source  of  more  mis- 
ery, cruelty  and  crime  than  any  other  evil 
of  the  world ! 

Some  years  ago  after  a  lecture  along 
this  line,  a  doubting  Thomas  said  to  me: 
"What  answer  have  you  for  the  scholar 
who  claims  your  very  word  'temperance' 
is  the  offspring  of  a  word  that  signifies 
moderation  ?"  I  said :  "The  same  I  would 
give  to  a  Darwinian  if  he  were  to  tell  me 
I  am  a  descendant  of  the  ape ;  and  that  is, 
I  rejoice  to  know  I'm  an  improvement  on 
my  ancestor."  To  one  who  charges  me 
with  being  a  distant  relative  of  the  chim- 
panzee, I  give  the  reply  of  Henry  Ward 
Beecher:  "I  don't  care  how  far  distant" 
I  acknowledge  my  ignorance  of  the  deri- 
vation of  the  word  temperance,  but  I  do 
know  drunkenness  comes  from  drinking 
intoxicating  liquor,  therefore  I  favor  to- 
tal-abstinence and  recommend  it  as  the 
safe  side  of  life  for  young  men. 


190         POPULAR  LECTURES. 

While,  by  quoting  isolated  passages  of 
the  Bible,  advocates  of  moderation  have 
succeeded  in  filling  the  air  with  dust  of 
doubt  about  the  teaching  of  the  Scriptures 
on  the  wine  question,  there  is  one  thing 
about  which  there  is  no  question,  and  that 
is  the  consent  of  'the  Bible  to  total-absti- 
nence for  anyone  who  desires  and  "dares 
to  be  a  Daniel."  I  would  rather  search 
my  Bible  for  permission  to  give  up  that 
over  which  my  brother  may  stumble  into 
ruin,  than  to  see  how  far  I  can  go  in  the 
use  of  it  without  committing  sin.  Mar- 
riage feasts  in  Cana  of  Galilee  two  thou- 
sand years  ago  do  not  concern  me  so  much 
as  the  social  feasts  of  the  present  age 
where  "wine  is  a  mocker,  strong  drink  is 
raging,"  and  many  are  "deceived  there- 
by." 

A  noted  Bible  scholar  says :  "The  Bible 
is  not  simply  a  schedule  of  sins  and  duties 
catalogued  and  labeled,  but  a  revelation 
of  immutable  principles,  in  the  application 
of  which  God  tests  the  sincerity  of  our 
profession."  To  drink  intoxicating  liquor 
in  this  enlightened  age,  with  all  the  woes 
of  intemperance  about  us  and  responsi- 
bilities of  life  upon  us,  is  a  violation  of 
every  immutable  principle  laid  down  in 


SAFE  SIDE  OF  LIFE          191 

the  Bible.  First,  it's  against  the  law  of 
prudence,  which  says  of  two  possible 
paths  one  should  take  the  safer.  Which 
is  the  safer,  moderation  or  total-absti- 
nence? Next,  it's  against  the  law  of  hu- 
mility, which  teaches  where  mightier 
than  we  have  fallen,  we  must  distrust  our- 
selves. Have  mightier  than  we  fallen 
through  strong  drink  ?  Next,  it's  against 
the  law  of  human  brotherhood,  which 
makes  it  imperative  upon  the  strong  to 
bear  the  infirmities  of  the  weak.  Is  the 
drinker  weak  ?  Next,  it's  against  the  law 
of  expediency;  "it  is  good  neither  to  eat 
flesh  nor  drink  wine  nor  anything  where- 
by thy  brother  stumbleth."  Do  our  broth- 
ers stumble  over  strong  drink?  Last,  it's 
againts  the  law  of  self-denial;  "if  meat 
make  my  brother  to  offend,  I  will  eat  no 
flesh  while  the  world  standeth,  lest  I  make 
my  brother  to  offend."  Does  strong  drink 
make  our  brother  to  offend?  On  these 
immutable  principles  the  cause  of  sobri- 
ety is  built,  and  the  gates  of  the  devil  of 
drink  shall  not  prevail  against  it. 

Young  man,  let  me  give  you  a  bit  of 
advice  and  assurance.  Never  take  a  drink 
of  intoxicating  liquor  as  a  beverage,  and 
when  you  are  as  old  as  I  am  you  will  not 


192         POPULAR  LECTURES. 

regret  it.  You  cannot  find  me  in  all  the 
viorld,  one  man  between  forty  and  eighty 
years  of  age,  an  abstainer  all  his  life,  who 
would  change  that  record  if  he  could. 
Boys,  that* s  a  very  safe  rule  that  has  not 
a  single  exception.  But  how  many  are 
there  who  regret  they  ever  put  the  bottle 
to  their  lips?  'If  I  had  only  let  strong 
drink  alone"  is  the  bitter  wail  of  millions 
of  men  and  women.  From  pauper  pov- 
erty and  prison  cells,  electric  chairs  and 
dying  drunkard's  lips  comes  the  cry: 
"Drink  has  been  my  curse!" 

Does  some  young  man  in  this  audience 
say,  "I  can  quit  if  I  please?"  Then  I  beg 
you  to  please,  ere  you  reach  the  time  when 
you  will  strive  to  quit,  but  in  vain.  I  know 
you  don't  intend  to  go  beyond  your  power 
of  control ;  neither  did  the  drunkards  who 
have  gone  before  you.  Do  you  suppose 
Edgar  Allen  Poe  dreamt  when  he  took 
his  first  drink  in  the  social  gathering  of 
an  oH  Virginia  gentleman's  home  that  it 
would  bring  from  his  brilliant  brain  the 
weird  strain: 

"Take  thy  beak  from  out  my  heart,  and 
take  thy  form  from  oft*  my  door!" 

Quoth  the  Raven,  "Nevermore." 

Do  you  suppose  Thomas  F.  Marshall, 


SAFE  SIDE  OF  LIFE          193 

our  gifted  Kentucky  orator,  dreamt  when 
he  stood  at  the  foot  of  the  ladder  of  fame 
and  all  Kentucky  pointed  him  to  the  golden 
glory  of  its  summit,  that  his  last  words 
would  be:  "And  this  is  the  end.  Tom 
Marshall  dying;  dying  in  a  borrowed  bed, 
under  a  borrowed  sheet,  and  without  a 
decent  suit  of  clothes  in  which  to  be  bu- 
ried!" 

I  well  remember  the  first  time  I  saw 
Thomas  Marshall.  He  had  returned  from 
Washington,  where  he  had  thrilled  Con- 
gress by  his  eloquence.  He  was  announc- 
ed to  speak  in  Lexington  on  court  day 
afternoon.  I  went  with  my  father  from 
our  country  home  to  hear  the  then  golden 
mouthed  orator.  For  nearly  two  hours 
he  swayed  that  audience  as  the  storm  king 
sways  the  mountain  pine.  On  unseen 
wings  of  eloquence  he  soared  to  heights 
I  had  never  imagined  within  the  reach  of 
mortal  tongue. 

I  also  remember  the  last  time  I  saw  this 
brilliant  Kentuckian.  He  was  standing 
on  a  street  corner  in  Lexington,  Kentucky. 
His  hair  hung  a  tangled  mass  about  his 
forehead,  his  eagle  eyes  were  dimmed  by 
debauch,  and  a  thin,  worn  coat  was  but- 
toned over  soiled  linen.  As  he  straight- 


194         POPULAR  LECTURES. 

ened  himself  and  started  to  the  bar-room, 
I  could  see  traces  of  greatness  lingering 
about  his  brow  like  sheet  lightning  about 
the  bosom  of  a  summer  sitorm  cloud.  Not 
long  after  he  was  telling  political  stories 
in  a  drinking  tavern.  When  he  tired  of 
the  tumult  of  the  bar-room  and  a  sense 
of  his  better  self  came  over  him,  some  one 
said :  "Give  us  another,  Tom."  Rising  to 
his  feet  he  said :  "You  remind  me  of  a  set 
of  bantam  chickens,  picking  the  sore  head 
of  an  eagle  when  his  wings  are  broken." 

At  one  time  in  a  temperance  revival  in 
Washington  he  took  the  pledge  and  kept  it 
for  months.  During  this  time  in  a  tem- 
p~rance  meeting  he  was  called  upon  to 
sycak.  The  following  brief  extract  shows 
the  charm  of  his  eloquence: 

"I  would  not  exchange  my  conscious  be- 
ing as  a  strictly  sober  man,  the  glad  play 
with  which  my  pulse  now  beats  health- 
ful music  through  my  veins,  the  bounding 
vivacity  with  which  my  life  blood  courses 
its  exultant  way  through  every  fiber  of  my 
frame,  the  communion  high  which  my  now 
healthful  eye  and  ear  hold  with  the  uni- 
verse around  me,  the  splendors  of  the 
morning,  the  softness  of  the  evening  sky, 
the  beauty,  the.  verdure  of  the  earth,  the 


SAFE  SIDE  OF  LIFE          195 

music  of  winds  and  waters.  No,  sir !  with 
all  these  grand  associations  of  external 
nature  re-opened  to  the  avenues  of  sense, 
though  poverty  dogged  me,  though  scorn 
pointed  its  slow  finger  at  me  as  I  passed, 
though  want,  destitution  and  every  ele- 
ment of  early  misery,  save  only  crime,  met 
my  waking  eye  from  day  to  day :  Not  for 
the  brightest  wreath  that  ever  encircled 
a  statesman's  brow;  not  if  some  angel 
commissioned  by  heaven,  or  rather  some 
demon  sent  from  hell  to  test  the  resisting 
power  of  my  virtuous  resolution,  were  to 
tempt  me  back  to  the  blighting  bowl ;  not 
for  the  honors  a  world  could  bestow, 
would  I  cast  from  me  this  pledge  of  a 
liberated  mind,  this  talisman  against 
temptation,  and  plunge  again  into  the  hor- 
rors that  once  beset  my  path.  So  help  me 
Heaven,  I  would  spurn  beneath  my  feet 
all  the  gifts  a  universe  could  offer,  and 
live  and  die  as  I  am — poor  but  sober." 

Drinking  young  man,  Thomas  F.  Mar- 
shall once  stood  where  you  now  stand.  He 
said  then  what  you  say  now,  yet  after  that 
beautiful  tribute  to  sobriety  and  the  pledge . 
of  total-abstinence,  he  stood  at  a  black- 
smith shop  door,  and  as  the  smith  drew 
the  red  hot  iron  from  the  forge,  Mr.  Mar- 


196         POPULAR  LECTURES. 

shall  said  to  some  friends:  "Gentlemen,  I 
would  seize  that  rod  of  heated  iron  and 
hold  it  in  my  hand  till  it  cools,  if  it  would 
cure  me  of  my  terrible  appetite  for  strong 
drink."  This  is  but  one  of  the  many  fal- 
len stars  the  demon  of  drink  has  snatched 
from  the  galaxy  of  Kentucky's  greatness 
and  hurled  into  the  darkness  of  eternal 
night. 

A  man  who  could  drink  and  not  get 
drunk  said  to  me:  "I  have  no  patience 
with,  nor  sympathy  for  a  drunkard.  If 
I  couldn't  eat  what  I  want  and  quit  when 
I  choose,  I  wouldn't  claim  to  be  a  man." 
Whether  he  could  or  not,  depends  on  con- 
ditions. Let  my  arm  represent  the  scale 
of  life,  with  will  on  one  side  and  appetite 
on  the  other.  When  a  man  is  healthy  his 
will  stands  at  eighty,  his  appetite  at  fifty. 
That  man  eats  when  he  likes,  or  lets  it 
alone  as  he  chooses.  But  let  this  healthy, 
strong  man  take  typhoid  fever,  and  after 
six  or  eight  weeks  be  reduced  to  almost 
a  skeleton.  At  this  stage,  the  fever  hav- 
ing subsided,  let  the  doctor  say  to  the 
once  strong  man:  "The  fever  is  broken; 
be  careful  about  your  diet,  no  solid  food, 
only  chicken  broth  and  gruel."  Place  by 
the  bed  of  this  once  strong  man  a  table 


SAFE  SIDE  OF  LIFE          197 

and  on  this  table  a  roast  turkey,  stuffed 
with  oysters.  On  the  floor  place  a  coffin 
and  say  to  the  patient :  "You  see  that  tur- 
key and  that  coffin.  If  you  eat  the  turkey 
today,  you'll  be  in  the  coffin  tomorrow." 
Go  out  and  leave  the  man  alone  with  the 
turkey.  Will  he  eat  it?  I  don't  care  if 
he's  a  preacher  or  a  doctor  he  will,  re- 
gardless of  the  advice  of  doctor  or  terror 
of  the  waiting  coffin.  Why  will  he  eat 
when  he  knows  it  means  death?  Because 
his  will  has  gone  down  to  twenty  and  his 
appetite  up  to  one  hundred. 

My  father  had  typhoid  fever  and  when 
the  time  of  convalescing  came  my  mother 
left  him  alone  while  she  was  in  the  yard 
with  her  flowers.  I  went  into  the  house 
and  found  father  had  left  his  bed,  crawled 
to  the  cupboard  and  had  hold  of  what  was 
left  of  a  chicken.  I  called  to  mother ;  she 
came  running,  and  taking  the  chicken 
from  him  said:  "Don't  you  know  to  eat 
solid  food  will  kill  you  ?"  Father  replied : 
"I  know  if  you  hadn't  come  in  I  would 
have  had  one  square  meal." 

Did  I  say  too  much  when  I  said  the 
preacher  would  eat  the  turkey?  Years 
ago  Saint  John's  pulpit  in  Louisville,  Ken- 
tucky,  was  filled  by  a  preacher  so  gifted 


198         POPULAR  LECTURES. 

that  strangers  in  the  city  were  attracted 
by  his  fame  as  an  orator.  He  had  an  in- 
valid mother,  who  in  her  wheel  chair 
would  attend  every  service,  and  was  made 
happy  in  her  affliction  by  the  sermons  of 
her  eloquent  son.  He  married  a  wealthy 
widow  and  had  everything  wealth  and  re- 
finement could  suggest.  He  saw  no  wrong 
in  the  wine  glass  and  kept  a  supply  in  his 
cellar.  Gradually  appetite  demanded 
stronger  drinks  and  one  morning  his  wife 
said:  "Husband,  you  were  drunk  last 
night."  A  few  months  later  he  resigned 
his  position  and  went  west,  hoping  to 
break  the  spell  of  his  habit.  But  no  moun- 
tain was  high  enough,  nor  cavern  dark 
enough  for  him  to  hide  from  his  mad  pur- 
suer. He  returned  to  Louisville  and  gave 
himself  up  to  the  maddening  bowl.  His 
wife  left  him  and  went  to  a  country  home 
which  she  had  saved  out  of  her  wealth. 
One  night  when  he  was  sleeping  drunk  in 
one  room,  his  old  mother  in  another  said : 
"Oh  God,  is  my  cup  of  sorrow  not  yet 
full?"  The  pitying  angel  pushed  ajar  the 
golden  gates  and  the  broken  heart  entered 
into  rest. 

Time  and    again    this    man    took    the 
pledge,  but  only  to  fail.     When  the  "blue 


SAFE  SIDE  OF  LIFE  199 

ribbon"  wave  swept  the  country  he  again 
took  the  pledge,  and  this  time  went  on  the 
platform  as  a  temperance  advocate.  He 
drew  great  audiences,  and  when  he  had 
kept  his  pledge  for  months  we  invited  him 
to  Louisville.  It  was  my  privilege  to  in- 
troduce him,  or  rather  to  present  him  to 
the  great  audience.  Before  going  on  the 
platform  he  said :  "I  have  made  a  mistake 
in  coming  here.  It  was  here  I  lost  every- 
thing a  man  could  ask  to  make  him  happy. 
The  memory  of  my  sainted  mother  comes 
over  me,  and  my  wife  is  so  near  and  yet 
so  far  from  me." 

To  bring  him  back  to  himself  I  said: 
"These  things  will  help  you  to  give  the 
greatest  lecture  of  your  life.  Come,  a 
great  audience  of  old  friends  are  waiting." 

When  introduced  he  said :  "My  friends, 
if  I  ever  did  a  dishonorable  act  before  I  fell 
from  the  pulpit  through  drink,  rise  and 
tell  me."  Soon  he  had  his  audience  in 
tears  and  lifting  his  eyes  heavenward  he 
said:  "0  my  sainted  Mother,  look  down 
from  your  home  in  glory  and  see  your 
poor  drunken  boy.  He  has  staggered  all 
the  way  back,  his  feet  upon  the  up-hill- 
ward  way,  and  will  travel  it  with  a  mar- 
tyr's step." 


200          POPULAR  LECTURES. 

He  further  said:  "Will  I  ever  drink 
again?  No;  this  brow  was  not  made  to 
wear  the  brand  of  a  vassal,  nor  these 
hands  the  chains  of  a  drunkard.  Here  in 
Louisville,  where  I  fell  in  my  manhood's 
might,  I  vow  I  will  never  drink  again." 
Manhood's  might  is  too  weak  to  win  alone 
in  the  battle  against  sin.  Poor  J.  J.  Tal- 
bott  went  down  to  rise  no  more,  and  on 
his  dying  bed,  when  a  minister  quoted 
passage  after  passage  of  promise  from 
God's  word,  the  answer  came:  "Not  for 
me!  Not  for  me!"  Peace  to  his  ashes. 

Young  man,  will  you  tamper  and  trifle 
with  strong  drink?  Do  you  say  you  can 
drink  or  let  it  alone?  I  admit  you  can 
drink  but  are  you  sure  you  can  let  it 
alone?  If  you  can  now,  are  you  sure  you 
can  two  years  hence?  I  saw  a  giant  oak 
tree  lying  in  the  track  of  the  wind.  It 
had  been  called  "the  monarch  of  the  Si- 
erras." Under  the  very  nests  where  tem- 
pests hatch  out  their  young,  it  grew  to  its 
greatness.  It  had  seen  many  a  storm, 
clad  in  thunder,  armed  with  lightning, 
leap  from  its  rocky  bed  and  go  bellowing 
down  the  world.  But  the  storms  that 
shook  it  only  sent  its  roots  down  and  out 
that  it  might  fasten  itself  the  more  firmly 


SAFE  SIDE  OF  LIFE          201 

to  the  earth.  For  long  years  this  old  tree 
stood  there,  bowing  its  head  in  courtesy 
to  the  passing  storm,  while  its  branches 
were  but  harp  strings  for  the  music  of  the 
winds.  One  evening  as  the  sun  went  down 
over  the  mountain's  brow,  not  a  storm 
cloud  on  the  sky,  a  little  wind  went  hur- 
rying round  the  mountain's  base,  struck 
the  great  oak  and  down  it  went  with  a 
crash  that  made  the  forest  ring.  Young 
men,  why  was  it  a  tree  that  had  with- 
stood the  storms  of  ages,  should,  before 
such  a  little  gust  of  wind  bow  its  head  and 
die?  Years  before,  when  in  the  zenith  of 
its  strength  and  glory,  a  pioneer  with  an 
axe  on  his  shoulder,  went  blazing  his  way 
through  the  wooded  wilderness  that  he 
might  not  be  lost  on  his  return.  Seeing 
the  great  tree  he  said :  "That's  a  good  one 
to  mark,"  and  taking  his  axe  in  hand,  he 
sent  the  blade  deep  into  the  oak.  Time- 
passed  with  seemingly  no  effect  from  the 
stroke  given  by  the  axeman.  But  stead- 
ily the  sun  smote  the  wound,  rain  soaked 
into  the  scar,  worms  burrowed  in  the  bark 
around  it,  birds  pecked  into  the  decayed 
wood  and  finally  foxes  made  their  home 
in  the  hollow  trunk,  and  the  day  came 
when  resisting  force  had  weakened, 


202         POPULAR  LECTURES. 

boasted  strength  had  departed  and  the 
giant  monarch  of  the  Sierras  stood  at  the 
mercy  of  the  winds  that  have  no  respect 
for  weakness. 

There  are  young  men  before  me  today, 
who  can  drink  or  let  it  alone.  Temptation 
to  them  is  no  more  than  the  gentle  breeze 
in  the  branches  of  the  oak  in  the  zenith 
of  its  strength.  True,  temptation  has 
been  along  their  way  blazing,  here  a  glass 
of  wine,  there  a  glass  of  beer  and  yonder 
a  glass  of  whiskey.  They  can  quit  when 
they  please,  but  the  less  they  please  the 
more  they  drink,  the  more  they  drink  the 
less  they  please.  They  don't  quit  because 
they  can,  if  they  couldn't  quit  they  would, 
because  they  can,  they  won't.  Thus  tftey 
reason,  while  appetite  eats  its  way  into 
their  wills,  birds  of  ill  omen  peek  into 
their  characters  and  finally  they  will  go 
down  to  drunkards'  graves,  as  thousands 
before  them  have  gone.  Young  men,  in 
the  morning  of  life,  while  the  dew  of  youth 
is  yet  upon  your  brow,  I  beg  you.  to  bind 
the  pledge  of  total-abstinence  as  a  garland 
about  your  character  and  pray  God  to 
keep  you  away  from  the  tempter's  path. 

I  wonder  that  young  men  will  trifle 
•with  this  great  "deceiver."  I  wonder  too 


SAFE  SIDE  OF  LIFE          203 

at  so  much  ignorance  on  the  question 
among  intelligent  people.  Some  years 
ago  after  a  temperance  address  a  gentle- 
man was  introduced  to  me  as  the  finest 
scholar  in  the  city.  Next  morning:  we 
were  on  the  same  train,  and  referring  to 
the  lecture  of  the  evening  bef or?,  he  said : 
"I  heard  your  address  and  was  pleased 
with  your  kindly  spirit,  but  I  beg  to  differ 
with  you,  believing  as  I  do,  that  when 
properly  used,  alcoholic  liquor  as  a  bever- 
age is  good  for  health  and  strength."  I 
felt  disappointed  to  hear  a  great  scholar 
make  such  a  statement,  but  I  ventured  the 
reply : 

"If  that  is  true  God  made  a  mistake, 
since  He  made  the  whole  phenomena  of 
animal  life  to  run  by  water  power.  He 
made  it  in  such  abundance  it  takes  oceans 
to  hold  it,  rivers  and  rivulets  to  carry  it 
to  man,  bird  and  beast,  while  in  all  the 
wide  world  He  never  made  a  spring  of 
alcohol.  If  it's  good  for  strength,  why 
not  give  it  to  the  ox,  the  mule  and  the 
horse?"  It  takes  a  good  deal  of  faith  to 
trust  a  sober  mule;  I'm  sure  I  wouldn't 
want  to  trust  a  drunken  one.  There  is 
not  a  man  in  my  presence  who  would  buy 
a  moderate  drinking  horse,  and  no  one 


204         POPULAR  LECTURES. 

would  wilfully  go  through  a  lot  where  a 
drunken  dog  had  right  of  way.  Yet  we 
license  saloons  to  turn  drunken  men  loose 
in  the  street,  some  of  them  as  vicious  as 
mad  dogs. 

Good  for  strength?  When  Samson 
had  slain  the  regiment  of  Philistines  and 
was  exhausted  and  athirst;  when  in  his 
extremity  he  cried  to  the  Lord:  "Thou 
hast  given  this  great  deliverance  into  the 
hand  of  thy  servant,  and  now  shall  I  die 
from  thirst."  What  was  done  to  revive 
him  and  renew  his  strength  ?  Was  strong 
drink  recommended  as  a  stimulant?  The 
Bible  account  informs  us  God  "clave  an 
hollow  place  in  the  jaw,  and  water  came 
thereout."  Doa't  you  think  if  alcoholic 
liquor  had  been  intended  as  a  beverage 
for  mankind,  the  great  Creator  would  have 
made  a  few  springs  of  it  somewhere? 
Bore  into  the  earth  you  can  strike  oil,  but 
you  can't  strike  whiskey.  You  can  find 
sparkling  springs  of  water  almost  every- 
where, but  nowhere  a  beer  brewery  in 
nature.  It's  water,  blessed  water  all  the 
time.  On  your  right  it  bubbles  in  the 
brook ;  on  your  left  it  leaps  and  laughs  in 
the  cascade;  above  you  it  rides  in  rain 
clouds  upon  the  wings  of  the  wind;  be- 


SAFE  SIDE  OF  LIFE          205 

neath  you  it  hangs  in  diamond  dew  upon 
the  bending  blade;  behind  you  it  comes 
galloping  down  the  gorge  "from  out  the 
mountain's  broken  heart;"  before  you  it 
goes  gliding  down  the  glen,  kissing  way- 
side flowers  into  fragrance  and  singing, 
as  rippling  o'er  the  rocks  it  runs:  "Men 
may  come  and  men  may  go,  but  I  go  on 
forever."  Oh,  bright  beautiful  water! 
may  it  soon  be  the  beverage  of  all  man- 
kind. 

I  know  some  say :  "This  is  a  free  coun- 
try; if  a  man  wants  to  drink  and  be  a 
brute,  let  him  do  so."  The  trouble  about 
that  is,  while  strong  drink  will  degrade 
some  men  to  the  level  of  the  brute,  drunk- 
ards are  not  made  of  brutes.  Some  thirty 
or  more  years  ago  a  grandson  of  one  of 
the  greatest  statesman  this  country  ever 
produced,  was  shot  in  a  saloon  while  in- 
toxicated. While  that  young  man  was 
dying,  but  a  few  blocks  away  a  grandson 
of  one  of  the  greatest  men  that  ever  hon- 
ored Kentucky  in  the  Senate  of  the  United 
States,  was  in  jail  to  be  tried  for  murder 
committed  while  drunk;  and  in  the  same 
city  at  the  same  hour  in  the  station-house 
from  drink  was  a  great  grandson  of  the 
author  of  "Give  me  liberty  or  give  me 


206          POPULAR  LECTURES. 

death."  Whom  did  Daniel  Webster  leave 
his  seat  in  the  Senate  that  he  might  hear 
his  eloquence?  S.  S.  Prentice  went  down 
under  the  cloud  of  drink.  A  gifted  fam- 
ily gave  to  a  Southern  State  a  gifted  son. 
His  state  sent  him  to  the  halls  of  national 
legislation,  but  drink  wrought  his  ruin. 
Horace  Greeley  was  his  friend,  and  find- 
ing him  drunk  in  a  Washington  hotel  said 
to  him :  "Why  don't  you  give  up  what  you 
know  is  bringing  shame  upon  you  and  sor- 
row to  your  family?" 

He  replied:  "Mr.  Greeley,  ask  me  to 
take  my  knife  and  sever  my  arm  from  my 
shoulder  and  I  can  do  it,  but  ask  me  to 
give  up  an  appetite  that  has  come  down 
upon  me  for  generations,  I  can't  do  it." 
He  threw  his  cane  upon  the  floor  to  em- 
phasize his  utterance.  A  few  days  later 
in  the  old  Saint  Charles  Hotel,  he  pierced 
his  brain  with  a  bullet  and  was  sent  home 
to  his  family  in  his  coffin. 

Bring  me  the  men  who  are  drunkards 
in  this  city,  strip  them  of  their  appetite 
for  strong  drink,  and  they  are  husbands, 
brothers,  fathers,  sons,  and  as  a  rule,  gen- 
erous in  disposition. 

Thank  God,  while  drunkenness  will 
drag  down  the  gifted  and  noble,  temper- 


SAFE  SIDE  OF  LIFE          207 

ance  will  build  up  the  humblest  and  Icx- 
est.  Bring  me  the  poorest  boy  in  this  au- 
dience, let  him  pledge  me  he  will  never 
take  a  drink  of  intoxicating  liquor  as  a 
beverage,  let  him  keep  that  pledge,  be  in- 
dustrious and  honest;  my  word  for  it,  in 
twenty  years  from'  now  he  will  walk  the 
streets  of  the  city  in  which  he  dwells, 
honored,  respected,  loved,  and  the  world 
can't  keep  him  down.  I  rejoice  we  live  in 
a  land  where  I  can  encourage  a  boy,  a  land 
where  rank  belongs  to  the  boy  who  earns 
it,  whether  he  hails  from  the  mansion  of 
a  millionaire  or  the  "old  log  cabin  in  the 
lane;"  a  land  where  a  boy  can  go  from 
a  rail  cut,  a  tan  yard,  or  a  tow-path,  to  the 
presidency  of  the  United  States;  a  land 
where  I  can  look  the  humblest  boy  in  the 
face  and  say: 

"Never  ye  mind  the  crowd,  my  boy,  or 

think  that  life  won't  tell; 
The  work  is  the  work  for  aye  that,  to  him 

that  doeth  it  well. 
Fancy  the  world  a  hill,    my    boy ;    look 

where  the  millions  stop; 
You'll  find  the  crowd  at  the  base,  my  boy ; 

there's  always  room  at  the  top." 

Have  you  a  trade?    Go  learn  one.    Do 


208         POPULAR  LECTURES. 

you  know  how  to  do  things  ?  Go  try ;  you 
may  make  mistakes,  but  do  the  best  you 
can  like  the  boy  who  joined  the  church. 
At  his  uncle's  'table  soon  after  he  was 
asked  to  say  grace.  He  didn't  know  what 
kind  of  a  blessing  to  ask,  but  he  did  know 
he  was  very  hungry,  so  bowing  his  head 
he  said :  "Lord,  have  mercy  on  these  vict- 
uals." I  have  faith  in  the  boy  who  will 
try  to  do  a  thing.  I  believe  in  a  boy  like 
that  one  in  a  mission  Sabbath  school  in 
New  York,  who  though  he  had  but  little 
knowledge  of  the  Bible,  had  a  way  of  rea- 
soning about  Bible  lessons.  The  teacher 
of  his  class  said  to  him:  "James,  who 
was  the  strongest  man  of  whom  we  have 
any  account?" 

He  quickly  replied:  "Jonah." 

"How  do  you  make  that  out?"  said  the 
teacher. 

Promptly  the  answer  came :  "The  whale 
couldn't  hold  him  after  he  got  him  down." 

Boys,  are  you  poor?  Columbus  was  a 
weaver;  Arkright  was  a  barber;  Esop,  a 
slave;  Bloomfield,  a  shoemaker;  Lincoln, 
a  rail-splitter;  Garfield  tramped  a  tow- 
path  with  no  company  but  an  honest  mule ; 
and  Franklin,  whose  name  will  never  die 
while  lightning  blaze*  through  the  clouds, 


SAFE  SIDE  OF  LIFE          209 

went  from  the  humble  position  of  a  print- 
er's devil  to  that  height  where  he  looked 
down  upon  other  men.  If  you  would  win 
in  the  battle  of  life,  take  the  right  side 
of  life  and  build  a  righteous  character. 
The  saddest  scene  on  the  streets  at  night 
is  the  young  man,  whose  clothes  are  finest 
in  quality  and  fittest  in  fashion,  but  whose 
principles  sadly  need  "patching."  I  dare 
say  there  are  young  men  before  me  now 
who  would  not  go  into  refined  company 
indecently  dressed  for  any  consideration, 
but  who  will  rush  into  the  presence  of 
their  God  before  they  sleep  with  a  doze* 
oaths  upon  their  lips.  Will  Carleton  puts 
it  this  way : 

"Boys  flying  kites,  haul  in  their  white 

plumed  birds ; 

You  can't  do  that  when  flying  words ; 
Thoughts    unexpressed,    may    sometimes 

fall  back  dead, 
But  God  Himself  can't  kill  them  when 

they're  said." 

Will  Carleton  puts  it  in  poetry,  let's 
have  it  in  prose.  Boys,  pay  more  atten- 
tion to  your  manners  than  to  your  mous- 
tache; keep  your  conduct  as  neat  as  your 
neck-tie,  polish  your  language  as  well  as 


210          POPULAR  LECTURES. 

your  boots;  remember,  moustache  grows 
grey,  clothes  get  seedy,  and  boots  wear 
out,  but  honor,  virtue  and  integrity  will 
be  as  bright  and  fresh  when  you  totter 
with  old  age  as  when  your  mother  first 
looked  love  into  your  eyes. 

Little  Lucy  Rome  was  taken  up  for  va- 
grancy in  a  great  city.  When  brought 
before  the  court  an  austere  judge  said: 
"Who  claims  this  child?" 

A  boy  arose  and  walking  down  near  the 
Judge,  said:  "Please,  sir;  I  do.  She's 
my  sister ;  we  are  orphans,  but  I  can  take 
care  of  her  if  you'll  let  her  go." 

"Who  are  you?"  asked  the  Judge. 

"I'm  Jimmy  Rome,  and  I  have  been 
taking  care  of  my  sister;  but  two  weeks 
ago  the  man  for  whom  I  worked  died  and 
while  I  was  out  looking  for  another  place, 
Lucy  begged  some  bread  and  they  took 
her  up.  But  now  I've  a  good  place  to 
work,  Judge,  and  I'm  going  to  put  little 
sister  in  school.  Please  let  me  have  her, 
sir." 

The  Judge  said:  "Stand  aside."  Offi- 
cer, take  the  child  to  the  children's  home." 

The  boy  with  tears  streaming  down  his 
cheeks,  as  he  heard  his  sister  sobbing1, 


SAFE  SIDE  OF  LIFE          211 

said:  "Judge,  please  don't  take  her  from 
me." 

The  Judge,  moved  by  the  pleading  of 
the  brother,  said:  "Well,  my  boy,  if  you 
can  find  some  reliable  person  to  go  your 
security  you  may  have  her." 

"Judge,  I  don't  know  anyone  to  give 
you;  my  good  friend  is  dead,  but  I  told 
you  the  truth.  I  don't  drink,  nor  smoke 
nor  swear  oaths ;  I  try  to  be  a  good  boy ;  I 
work  hard,  but  I  can't  give  you  any  se- 
curity. Judge,  will  you  please  let  me  kiss 
my  little  sister  before  you  take  her  from 
me?" 

With  this  the  boy  put  his  arms  about 
his  weeping  sister  and  printed,  as  he 
thought,  the  last  kiss  upon  her  cheek.  The 
Judge,  with  a  lump  in  his  throat,  said: 
"Take  her,  my  boy;  I'll  go  your  security. 
I'll  give  Lucy  to  the  care  of  such  a  broth- 
er." 

Hand  in  hand  the  homeless  orphan  pair 
walked  out  of  the  court  room  together, 
Jimmy  Rome  to  make  his  mark  in  the 
business  world  and  his  sister  to  be  the 
wife  of  a  merchant  prince. 

Boys,  be  industrious,  be  honest,  be  so- 
ber. "I  will"  flutttered  from  the  worm-,, 
eaten  ships  of  Columbus;  "I  will"  blazed 


212         POPULAR  LECTURES. 

upon  the  banners  of  Washington  and 
Grant;  "I  will"  stamped  the  walls  of  Hud- 
son river  tunnel,  and  dug  the  canal  of 
Panama.  Young  man,  write  "I  will"  up- 
on your  brow,  give  your  heart  to  God  and 
hope  will  herald  your  way  to  victory  as 
the  reward  of  a  well  spent  life.  Keep 
your  eye  upon  the  star  of  ambition.  Don't 
be  like  the  owl,  who  when  daylight  comes 
hides  himself  within  the  shadows  of  the 
ivy-bound  oak  and  moans  and  moans  the 
days  of  his  life  away;  but  rather  be  like 
the  proud  eagle  that  leaves  its  craggy 
summit,  starts  on  its  pinion  flight  through 
the  clouds,  rides  upon  the  face  of  the 
storm,  then  on  beyond  bathes  its  plumage 
in  the  "sunlight  of  the  day  god,  and  laughs 
in  the  face  of  the  coming  morrow." 

Some  one  said,  and  trifled  with  the  se- 
cret of  success  and  happiness  when  he  said 
it:  "There's  only  a  dollar's  difference  be- 
tween the  man  who  works  and  the  man 
who  pays,  and  the  man  who  pays,  gets 
that."  There  is  an  old  superstition  that 
somewhere  on  the  earth,  under  the  earth 
or  in  the  sea,  there  is  a  stone  called  the 
"philosopher's  stone"  and  whoever  finds  it 
will  be  "chiefest  among  ten  thousand." 
The  same  superstition  prevails  with  many 


SAFE  SIDE  OF  LIFE          213 

today ;  only  the  name  of  the  stone  is  turned 
to  "luck,"  and  thousands  of  young  men  are 
waiting  for  luck  to  come  along  and  turn 
up  something  for  them.  There  is  a  rule 
of  life,  young  men,  more  reliable  than 
luck.  It  is  called  an  ancient  law  and  runs 
thus:  "By  the  sweat  of  thy  face  shalt 
thou  eat  bread."  It  is  the  foundation  of 
more  sweet  bread  and  pure  enjoyment 
than  all  your  luck.  On  it  the  feet  of 
Abraham  Lincoln  rested,  while  he  wedged 
his  way  to  the  highest  office  in  the  gift  of 
the  American  people.  On  it  Shakespeare 
stood,  driving  a  shuttle  through  the  warp 
and  woof  of  a  weaver's  loom  and  wove  out 
for  himself  a  name  and  fame  immortal. 
On  it  Elihu  Burrett  wielded  a  sledge  ham- 
mer, while  developing  a  mind  that  mas- 
tered many  different  languages.  On  it 
Henry  Clay  made  his  way  from  the  mill- 
sloshes  of  Virginia  to  the  United  States 
Senate,  and  on  it  James  A.  Garfield 
tramped  his  toe-pathway  from  driving  a 
mule,  to  presiding  over  the  destinies  of 
seventy-five  millions  of  people. 

Boys,  don't  be  idle.  I  know  a  man  to- 
day who  always  looks  so  lazy  it  really 
rests  me  to  look  at  him.  A  boy  working 
for  a  farmer  was  asked  by  his  employer 


214         POPULAR  LECTURES. 

if  he  ever  saw  a  snail.  The  boy  answered 
that  he  had.  "You  must  have  met  it,  for 
you  surely  did  not  overtake  it,"  said  the 
farmer.  I  know  an  old  man  who  seems  to 
take  pride  in  saying  he  never  worked. 
The  first  time  I  saw  this  man  was  in  my 
youth.  While  his  father  was  husking 
corn  in  a  field,  he  was  seated  by  a  fire 
reading  a  novel.  Often  after  that,  when 
I  would  go  to  the  postoffice  in  the  winter, 
he  would  be  there  by  the  fire.  He  moved 
to  the  city  thirty  years  ago,  where  he 
spends  his  winters  sitting  around  a  fire. 
He  doesn't  drink  or  gamble.  I  don't  think 
he  will  have  many  sins  of  commission  for 
which  to  answer;  he  never  commits  any- 
thing; he  sits  by  the  fire.  When  he  dies 
an  appropriate  epitaph  for  his  tomb  will 
be: 

"He  was  never  much  on  stirrin'  round, 

Sich  wasn't  his  desire; 
When  weather  cool,  he  was  always  found, 

A  sittin'  round  the  fire. 

"When  the  frost  was  comin'  down, 
And  the  wind  a  creepin'  higher, 

He  spent  his  time  just  that  way, 
A  sittin'  round  the  fire. 


SAFE  SIDE  OF  LIFE  215 

"Same  old  habit  every  day, 

He  never  seemed  to  tire; 
While  others  worked  and  got  their  pay, 

He  sat  there  by  the  fire. 

"When  he  died,  by  slow  degrees, 
Some  said,  'he's  gone  up  higher;' 

But  if  he's  doin*  what  he  did, 
He's  sittin'  round  the  fire." 

The  man  or  woman  who  lives  in  this 
age  of  the  world  and  lives  in  idleness, 
should  have  lived  in  some  other  age.  When 
ox-teams  crept  across  the  plains,  and  stage 
coaches  went  six  miles  an  hour,  idleness 
may  have  been  in  some  kind  of  harmony 
with  the  age,  but  now,  when  horses  pace 
a  mile  in  two  minutes,  express  trains 
make  fifty  miles  an  hour,  and  aeroplanes 
fly  a  mile  in  a  minute ;  when  telephone  and 
telegraph  send  news  faster  than  light  flies, 
the  idler  is  out  of  place.  Carlisle  said: 
"The  race  of  life  has  become  intense ;  the 
runners  are  tramping  on  each  other's 
heels;  woe  to  the  man  who  stops  to  tie 
his  shoestrings!" 

Young  man,  if  you  would  keep  step  with 
the  energy  of  the  age  in  which  you  are 
living,  and  be  ever  found  on  the  safe  side 


216         POPULAR  LECTURES. 

of  life,  you  must  not  only  be  equipped 
with  education,  stability  and  ambition,  but 
to  make  sure  you  should  start  right.  If 
you  are  going  to  California  tomorrow, 
which  way  would  you  start,  east  or  west? 
You  say :  "We  would  start  west."  A  man 
riding  along  a  highway  said  to  a  farmer  by 
the  wayside:  "How  far  to  Baltimore?" 

The  farmer  answered:  "About  twenty- 
five  thousand  miles  the  way  you're  going ; 
if  you'll  face  about  and  go  the  other  way, 
it's  fourteen  miles." 

Young  man,  which  way  are  you  going? 

Does  someone  in  my  presence  say:  "I 
have  started  wrong ;  I  take  a  glass  of  beer 
now  and  then;  occasionally  utter  an  oath, 
and  am  sowing  wild  oats  in  a  few  other 
fields ;  but  I'll  come  out  right  in  the  end." 
Two  diverging  roads  keep  on  widening; 
they  don't  come  together  at  the  other  ends. 
If  you  would  make  sure  of  the  safe  side 
of  life  in  the  end  of  the  journey,  then  start 
right.  Luke  Howard  graduated  from  a 
fine  college  and  went  to  a  large  city  to 
practice  his  profession.  He  boarded  in  a 
fine  hotel  and  frequented  fine  saloons,  fle 
became  dissipated  and  one  morning  after 
a  drunken  debauch  the  landlord  said :  "Sir, 
you  disturbed  my  boarders  last  night  and 


SAFE  SIDE  OF  LIFE          217 

I  must  ask  you  to  leave."  Young  men,  did 
Luke  Howard  go  to  a  better  hotel?  No, 
but  to  a  grade  lower;  he  started  wrong. 
In  this  hotel  a  few  months  later,  he  was 
asked  to  move  on.  Did  he  go  to  a  better? 
No,  still  lower,  until  at  last  he  went  to 
board  in  the  low  tavern  on  the  river  front. 
The  landlord  said:  "I  remember  when 
you  graduated  from  college.  I  was  pres- 
ent, saw  the  flowers  and  heard  the  ap- 
plause that  greeted  your  success.  I  feel 
honored  to  have  you  as  a  boarder."  A 
few  months  later,  on  Christmas  night, 
Luke  Howard  lay  drunk  on  the  bar-room 
floor.  The  landlord  had  borne  all  he  could 
and,  with  a  kick,  he  said:  "Get  up  and 
get  out,  you  brute;  I  will  not  keep  you 
another  hour."  The  drunkard  with  help 
arose  and  said :  "Where  am  I  ?  Why,  this 
is  my  boarding  place,  my  home,  and  you 
are  my  landlord.  You  said  you  felt  hon- 
ored to  have  me  board  here.  What's  the 
matter?" 

"Luke  Howard,  you're  not  the  man  you 
once  were,  and  I  want  you  to  leave  here  at 
once." 

The  poor  fellow  started  for  the  door 
muttering :  "I  am  not  the  man  I  was.  I'm 
not  the  man  I  was."  Missing  the  step  as 


218         POPULAR  LECTURES. 

he  went  out,  'he  fell,  striking  his  head 
against  the  stone  curbing.  A  physician 
was  summoned  and  recognizing  the  in- 
jured man  as  an  old  friend  said:  "Luke, 
speak  to  your  old  college  chum ;  I'm  here 
to  help  you." 

The  poor  drunkard,  looking  through  the 
blood  that  flowed  from  the  gaping  wound 
said:  "Listen  to  me,  Tom,  I'm  not  the 
man  I  was,  I'm  not  the  man  I  was."  And 
thus  died  the  poor  fellow. 

Young  man,  start  wrong  and  end  right? 
No,  start  wrong  and  you  may  expect  in 
the  autumn  of  life  a  penniless,  friendless 
old  age;  opportunity  gone,  health  shat- 
tered, and  the  "long  fingers  of  memory" 
reaching  out  and  dragging  into  its  cham- 
bers thoughts  that  will  "bite  like  a  serpent 
and  sting  like  an  adder."  Bad  as  this  is, 
it  is  even  worse  when  your  depravity  in- 
volves another  life.  What  if  that  other 
life  is  your  mother,  who  went  to  the  door 
of  death  to  give  you  life,  and  whose  every 
breath  is  another  thread  of  sorrow  woven 
into  her  wasting  heart  while  her  boy  is 
bound  like  Mazeppa  to  the  wild  steed  of 
passion. 

There  are  some  things  I  cannot  under- 
stand about  this  drink  question.  I  can 


SAFE  SIDE  OF  LIFE          219 

understand  how  a  young  woman  with  jew- 
eled fingers  can  tempt  a  young  man  to 
drink  wine.  I  had  a  bit  of  experience 
some  years  ago  down  in  Texas,  that  helped 
me  to  appreciate  how  young  men  are 
tempted.  I  gave  an  address  in  a  Y.  M. 
C.  A.  lecture  course  in  a  city,  and  at  the 
close  of  my  address  a  prominent  citizen 
said  to  me:  "Kentucky  has  a  reputation 
for  beautiful  women,  but  we  think  Texas 
has  the  handsomest  women  in  the  world. 
At  the  hotel  where  you  are  stopping,  there 
is  a  leap  year  ball  tonight  and  the  most 
beautiful  women  for  a  hundred  miles 
around  are  gathered  there.  I  will  call  for 
you  at  your  room  in  a  little  while  and  you 
must  take  -a  look  at  our  Texas  girls."  A 
little  later  I  stood  in  a  hallway  where  I 
could  see  down  the  long  ball  room,  and  I 
declare  they  were  as  pretty  women  as  I 
have  ever  seen,  and  I  live  in  Kentucky.  I 
was  invited  to  step  inside  the  door,  where 
between  dances  I  was  introduced  to  coup- 
le after  couple.  It  being  leap  year  the 
ladies  were  soliciting  their  partners  for 
the  dance,  and  a  very  handsome  young 
lady  invited  me  to  be  her  partner.  Hav- 
ing never  danced  and  being  a  Methodist 
steward,  I  declined.  Another  and  anoth- 


220         POPULAR  LECTURES. 

er  asked  me  to  dance,  and  again  and  again 
I  declined,  giving  as  an  excuse  my  utter 
ignorance  of  the  function.  Finally  a  very 
beautiful,  blue-eyed,  charming  young  lacly 
said :  "Since  you  do  not  dance,  may  I  en- 
gage you  for  a  promenade  around  the 
ball  room?"  Boys,  if  I  had  been  a  young 
man  the  chances  are  I  would  have  started 
down  the  "turkey-trot"  road  that  evening. 
I  can  appreciate  how  young  men  are 
tempted. 

There  is  one  thing,  however,  about  the 
drink  habit  that  is  difficult  for  me  to  un- 
derstand, and  that  is  how  a  young  man, 
who  loves  his  mother,  whose  mother  loves 
him  as  only  a  mother  can  love,  loved  him 
first,  loved  him  best  and  will  love  him  to 
the  last,  can  go  from  home  and  mother  to 
the  impure,  degrading  vileness  of  a  liquor 
saloon.  If  we  enter  that  young  man's 
home  what  do  we  find?  Perhaps  on  cr.e 
of  the  side-walls,  "What  is  home  without 
a  mother,"  on  the  altar  the  family  Bible, 
every  picture  on  the  walls  suggestive  of 
home  life  and  purity,  every  chair  and 
piece  of  bric-a-brac  linked  with  the  sweet 
association  of  childhood,  the  conversation 
as  pure  as  the  sunlight  on  which  the  young 
man  lives;  yet  he  will  kiss  his  mother, 


SAFE  SIDE  OF  LIFE          221 

leave  this  home,  and  down  the  street  make 
his  way  to  a  liquor  saloon,  where  often 
vile  pictures  hang  on  the  walls,  cards  lie 
on  the  table  instead  of  the  family  Bible 
and  the  air  is  freighted  with  oaths  and  ob- 
scenities. 

Boys,  have  any  of  you  done  this  within 
the  past  month,  or  six  months?  Promise 
me  now  you  will  never  do  this  again.  Oh 
what  a  grand  meeting  this  would  be  if 
every  young  man  and  boy  in  my  presence 
would  make  the  promise!  I  plead  with 
you,  young  man,  by  the  sieepness  nights 
your  mother  spent  to  give  you  rest ;  by  the 
shadow  you  have  hung  over  her  pathway ; 
by  the  bleeding  heart  you've  wounded  but 
which  loves  you  still: 
"Come  back,  my  boy,  come  back,  I  say, 
And  walk  now  in  thy  mother's  way." 

I  would  that  every  boy  in  our  land  were 
as  grateful  to  his  mother  as  was  that 
Southern  girl  to  her  father,  who  stood 
years  ago  in  front  of  an  open  fire,  her 
back  to  the  fire,  her  face  toward  the  door, 
her  bare  arms  full  of  flowers,  waiting  for 
her  brother  to  call  with  a  carriage  to  take 
her  to  a  party.  While  standing  there  a 
flame  caught  her  dress ;  she  gave  a  scream, 
dropped  the  flowers  and  ran  through  the 


222         POPULAR  LECTURES. 

door  to  where  her  father  was  standing  in 
the  yard.  When  the  father  saw  his  child 
coming  with  flame  following,  he  ran  to- 
ward her.  As  he  ran  he  took  off  his  coat 
and  wrapping  it  about  her  face,  arms  and 
shoulders,  threw  her  to  the  ground.  With 
his  left  hand  he  kept  the  flame  from  the 
body,  while  with  his  right  hand  he  fought 
the  fire.  He  saved  his  daughter  but 
burned  his  right  arm  to  the  elbow.  Day 
after  day  when  the  doctor  would  unwrap 
the  arm  to  dress  it,  the  girl,  though  burned 
herself,  would  go  to  her  father's  bed,  gent- 
ly lift  the  burned  arm  and  caress  it.  When 
the  father  recovered  his  hand  was  so 
maimed  and  scarred,  that  when  introduc- 
ed to  grangers,  he  would  hold  his  right 
hand  behind  him  and  shake  hands  with 
the  left.  One  day  his  daughter,  seeing 
him  do  this,  went  to  his  side  and  reaching 
for  the  scarred  hand,  held  it  to  her  lips 
and  kissed  it.  She  was  not  ashamed,  for 
that  hand  had  been  burned  for  her.  When 
the  father  died  and  lay  in  his  casket  ready 
for  burial,  the  family  came  to  take  their 
last  look.  First  came  the  mother  of  the 
girl,  then  a  brother  and  sister,  and  then 
the  girl  herself.  'She  kissed  the  cold  brow 
of  'her  father,  then  kneeling  she  took  up 


SAFE  SIDE  OF  LIFE          223 

the  disfigured  hand  and  kissed  it  over  and 
over  again.  My  boy,  your  mother  has 
suffered  more  for  you  than  that  father  did 
for  his  daughter.  I  beg  you,  go  home  and 
kiss  your  mother.  If  she  is  dead  or  far 
from  you,  kiss  her  memory.  Go  to  your 
bed  room,  kneel  there,  and  pray  God  to 
help  you  to  live  worthy  the  love  of  your 
mother. 

I  now  turn  from  young  men  to  parents 
and  say,  use  every  means  possible  to  make 
safe  the  way  of  your  boys.  Some  years 
ago  in  one  of  our  cities,  after  a  lecture  in 
which  I  appealed  to  parents,  a  leading 
merchant  of  the  city  said :  "I  wish  I  had 
heard  that  lecture  years  ago." 

"You  never  used  liquor?"  I  said. 

"No,  but  I  am  responsible  for  its  use 
in  my  family.  I  am  a  Methodist,  and  a 
total  abstainer.  In  my  employ  I  had  a 
number  of  clerks,  and  let  it  be  known  I 
would  not  allow  any  of  them  to  drink  even 
moderately.  One  day  a  man  came  to  my 
store  with  a  paper  in  his  hand  and  said: 
"I  want  to  set  up  a  saloon  on  the  next 
block  and  I  am  getting  signers  to  my  pe- 
tition. I  am  one  of  your  customers ;  you 
know  me  and  know  I  will  keep  an  orderly 
place.'  I  said  to  myself,  'if  he  doesn't  sell 


224         POPULAR  LECTURES. 

others  will  and  we  need  the  revenue  any- 
way/ so  I  signed  the  petition.  A  few 
months  later  I  chanced  to  see  my  young- 
est boy  and  one  of  my  clerks  coming  out 
of  the  door  of  that  saloon.  Soon  after 
when  they  entered  the  store  I  called  them 
into  my  office  and  said:  'Young  men,  did 
I  see  you  coming  out  of  a  saloon,  and  had 
you  been  taking  a  drink  in  there  ?'  When 
they  admitted  they  had,  I  said  to  my 
son:  'Did  I  ever  set  such  an  example  for 
you  to  follow?'  He  answered:  'No,  fa- 
ther, but  you  signed  that  man's  petition  to 
set  up  the  saloon;  whom  did  you  expect 
him  to  sell  to?  Did  you  sign  it  for  him 
to  sell  to  other  fathers'  sons  and  not 
yours?'  I  realized  as  never  before  the 
wrong  I  had  done,  not  only  to  my  own  son, 
but  to  every  father's  son  to  whom  that 
saloon-keeper  would  sell  if  they  had  the 
money  to  pay  for  liquor.  I  said:  "For- 
give me,  my  boy.  Promise  me  you  will 
never  enter  a  saloon  again  and  I  promise 
never  to  sign  a  petition  or  vote  to  have  a 
saloon-keeper  sell  to  anybody's  boy!" 

But  it  was  too  late;  that  boy  went  to 
ruin  and  carried  his  old  father  to  financial 
ruin  with  him.  The  store  was  sold  and 
the  father  went  on  to  a  little  farm  in  Mis- 


SAFE  SIDE  OF  LIFE          225 

souri,  where  he  died  a  disappointed,  grief- 
stricken  man.  He  was  a  good  man  and 
a  kind  father,  but  he  did  not  realize  the 
full  meaning  of  the  warning,  "whatsoever 
ye  sow,  that  shall  ye  also  reap."  Fathers, 
be  careful  of  your  example.  Your  sons 
think  they  can  safely  follow  where  you 
lead.  Could  the  turf  break  above  the 
drunken  dead;  could  they  come  back  to 
earth  in  their  bony  whiteness  to  testify 
to  the  cause  of  their  ruin,  how  many  would 
point  to  the  old  sideboard  filled  with  all 
kinds  of  liquors,  to  father's  moderate  use 
of  strong  drink,  or  his  vote  for  the  saloon 
at  the  ballot  box. 

Too  often  the  careless  indulgence  of 
mothers  is  responsible  for  the  ruin  of 
their  sons.  If  mothers  were  as  watchful 
of  their  sons  as  of  their  daughters,  the 
magic  chain  of  mother  love  would  be  far 
more  binding  to  their  boys.  There  are 
homes  in  this  city  where  at  night  you  can 
hear  the  mothers  say  to  servants:  "Are 
the  clothes  in  off  the  line;  did  you  bring 
the  broom  and  the  pitcher  from  the  porch ; 
are  the  blinds  all  down;  are  the  girls  in 
bed ;  is  everything  in  order  for  the  night?" 
No,  mothers,  everything  is  not  in  order. 
Your  girls  are  safe,  the  windows  and  doors 


226          POPULAR  LECTURES. 

are  locked,  but  your  boys  are  on  the  out- 
side with  night  keys  in  their  pockets,  to 
come  in  at  midnight  from  God  only  knows 
where.  The  double  standard  reaches  too 
often  back  into  the  home. 

"Mother,  watch  the  little  feet, 

Climbing  o'er  the  garden  wall, 
Bounding  through  the  busy  street, 

Ranging  garret  shed  and  hall: 
Never  count  the  time  it  cost, 

Never  think  the  moments  lost; 
Lit£le  feet  will  go  astray, 

Watch  them,  mother,  while  you  may. 

'^Mother,  watch  the  little  tongue, 

Prattling,  innocent  and  wild, 
What  is  said  and  what  is  sung 

By  the  joyous,  happy  child; 
Stop  the  word  while  yet  unspoken ; 

Seal  the  vow  while  yet  unbfofcen, 
That  same  tongue  may  yet  proclaim, 

Blessings  in  a  Savior's  name. 

"Mother,  watch  the  little  heart, 
Beating  soft  and  warm  for  you ; 

Wholesome  lessons  now  impart, 

Keep,  0  keep,  that  young  heart  pure. 


SAFE  SIDE  OF  LIFE          227 

Extricating  every  weed, 

Sowing  good  and  precious  seed; 
Harvests  rich  you  then  shall  see, 

Ripening  for  eternity." 

Once  more  I  turn  to  the  young  men  to 
say,  if  you  would  make  life  safe  take  the 
Bible  as  the  man  of  your  counsel  and  the 
guide  of  your  life ;  love  God  and  keep  His 
commandments.  In  this  age  of  glittering 
literature,  many  consider  the  Bible  dull 
reading.  Sir  William  Jones,  one  of  Eng- 
land's greatest  jurists  and  scholars,  said: 
"I  have  carefully  perused  the  Bible,  and 
independent  of  its  divine  origin,  I  believe 
it  contains  more  true  sublimity,  more  ew 
quisite  beauty,  purer  morality,  more  im- 
portant history  and  finer  strains  of  poetry 
and  eloquence  than  could  be  contained 
within  the  same  compass,  from  all  the 
books  ever  published  in  any  age  or  any 
idiom." 

A  passionate  lover  of  poetry  has  said: 
"The  Bible  is  a  mass  of  beautiful  figures. 
It  has  pressed  into  its  service  the  animals 
of  the  forest,  the  flowers  of  the  fields  and  . 
the  stars  of  heaven ;  the  lion,  spurning  the 
sands  of  the  desert;  the  wild  roe,  leaping 
the  mountains ;  the  lamb  led  to  the  slaugh- 


228         POPULAR  LECTURES. 

ter ;  the  goat,  fleeing  to  the  wilderness ;  the 
Rose  of  Sharon;  the  Lily  of  the  Valley; 
the  great  rock  in  a  weary  land;  Carmel 
by  the  sea;  Tabor  in  the  mountains;  the 
rain  and  mown  grass;  the  sun  and  moon 
and  morning  stars.  Thus  hath  the  Bible 
swept  creation  to  lay  its  trophies  upon  the 
altar  of  Jehovah."  Patrick  Henry  con- 
tinually sought  the  Bible  for  gems  of  ex- 
pression, while  today  the  politician  on  the 
rostrum  and  the  lawyer  at  the  bar,  quote 
the  Bible  to  give  force  and  effect  to  their 
speeches. 

Some  say :  "There  is  so  much  in  the  Bi- 
ble we  cannot  comprehend.'*  Yes,  there's 
very  much  in  there  doubtless  God  did  not 
intend  you  should  understand.  One  wades 
in  the  ocean  knee  deep,  waist  deep,  neck 
deep,  and  gives  it  up  that  he  can't  wade 
the  ocean.  If  God  had  intended  one  should 
wade  the  ocean  He  would  have  made  it 
shallow  enough  to  wade.  So,  one  finds 
he  can  climb  to  the  mountain's  top,  or  sail 
thousands  of  feet  above  the  mountain  in 
an  air  ship,  but  he  can't  sail  to  the  skies. 
Two  good  women  went  to  Sam  Jones  and 
said :  "Mr.  Jones,  here  are  several  passa- 
ges of  scripture  we  don't  understand.  We 
have  been  to  several  ministers  and  they, 


SAFE  SIDE  OF  LIFE          229 

cannot  explain  them  satisfactorily;  per- 
haps you  can."  The  great  evangelist  said : 
"Sisters,  you  haven't  as  much  good  hard 
sense  as  my  cow.  We  keep  a  cow  and 
through  the  winter  we  give  her  hay  to 
eat.  Now  Georgia  hay  has  a  considerable 
mixture  of  briars.  When  we  give  the  cow 
an  arm  full  of  hay  she  has  sense  enough 
to  eat  the  hay  and  let  the  briars  alone. 
But  with  the  blessed  Bible  full  of  good 
hay,  you  are  'chawing*  away  on  the  bri- 
ars." Young  people,  there  is  enough  in 
God's  word  you  can  understand  to  serve 
you  if  you  live  a  thousand  years,  enough 
in  there  to  save  you  of  you  die  tonight,  so 
don't  worry  over  what  you  can't  under- 
stand. 

During  the  Civil  War  a  terrible  battle 
raged  all  day  between  the  armies  of  Grant 
and  Lee.  When  the  night  shadows  shut 
out  the  light,  dead  and  dying  were  strewn 
for  miles.  Surgeons  were  busy  and  the 
chaplains  going  their  rounds.  A  chaplain 
heard  a  voice  say,  in  clarion  tone :  "Here." 
Going  to  the  spot  from  whence  came  the 
voice  and  bending  over  the  prostrate  form 
of  a  dying  soldier,  the  chaplain  asked: 
"What  can  I  do  for  you?" 

"Nothing,  sir;  they  were  just  calling 


230          POPULAR  LECTURES. 

the  roll  in  Heaven,  and  I  was  answering 
to  my  name." 

Blessed  book,  in  which  there  is  enough 
a  wounded  soldier,  dying  far  away  from 
home  and  loved  ones,  can  so  understand 
as  to  fit  him  to  answer  the  roll  call  in 
Heaven. 

We  may  not  comprehend  the  full  mean- 
ing of  faith,  but  we  can  grasp  sufficient  to 
be  to  our  souls  what  the  force  of  nature 
is  to  the  trees,  by  which  they  stand  with 
their  branches  reaching  skyward  and  their 
roots  drawing  -earth-centerward.  Take 
from  me  this  faith  and  you  take  away  the 
best  friend  I  ever  had,  the  friend  that 
stood  by  me  in  the  darkest  hour  of  my 
life,  when  a  daughter  in  the  bloom  of  wo- 
manhood said,  "good-bye,"  and  went  away 
to  live  with  the  angels ;  that  stands  by  me 
now  pointing  to  where  my  child  is  wait- 
ing for  me  in  the  bowers  that  kiss  the  very 
porch  of  Heaven.  Without  this  faith  how 
awful  would  be  the  dirge,  "earth  to  earth, 
dust  to  dust."  Blessed  book  that  tells  us 
we  shall  meet  "beyond  the  river,  whe?'e 
the  surges  cease  to  roll;"  that  death  is 
but  the  doorway  to  a  better  land,  "the 
grave  a  subway  to  a  sweeter  clime." 

My  dear  young  friends,  accept  this  faith 


SAFE  SIDE  OF  LIFE          231 

and  you  will  find  in  it  a  sweet  companion 
up  the  hillward  way  of  life,  and  down  the 
sunset  slope  to  the  valley  of  death,  where 
it  will  not  leave  nor  forsake  you,  but  will 
wait  till  you  throw  off  your  "burden  of 
clay,"  then  "bear  you  away  on  its  balmy 
wings  to  your  eternal  home."  Young 
men,  may  you  so  follow  the  safe  side  of 
life,  that  when  its  great  trials  come,  you 
can  with  the  wings  of  faith  cleave  the 
clouds  and  soar  safely  above  the  thunders 
that  roll  at  your  feet. 

My  closing  advice  is,  "Walk  not  in  the 
counsel  of  the  ungodly,  nor  stand  in  the 
way  of  sinners;  but  delight  in  the  law  of 
the  Lord ;  and  in  his  law  meditate  day  and 
night.  In  due  season  your  life  will  fruit 
and  whatsoever  you  do  will  prosper." 


VI 

PLATFORM     EXPERIENCES. 

Though  announced  to  lecture  on  Plat- 
form Experiences,  it  is  my  purpose  to 
give  you  a  kind  of  platform  analysis,  to 
tell  you  what  I  know  about  lecturing,  lec- 
tures, oratory  and  orators,  using  personal 
experiences  for  illustration. 

We  have  about  eight  thousand  Chautau- 
qua  days,  and  fifteen  thousand  lecture 
courses  in  this  country  every  year,  and 
yet  comparatively  few  persons  know  the 
history  of  the  platform.  Many  have  an 
idea  that  free  speech,  like  free  air,  has 
ever  been  a  boon  to  mankind.  They  have 
no  conception  of  what  it  has  cost,  in  im- 
prisonment, exile,  blood  and  tears. 

I  am  indebted  to  "Pond's  History  of  the 
Platform"  for  facts  and  illustrations  in 
the  early  history  of  the  platform  in  Eng- 
land. Two  hundred  years  ago  in  our 
mother  land,  the  word  platform  meant  no 
more  than  a  resting  place  for  boxes  and 
barrels.  A  religious  service  was  simply  a 
233 


234         POPULAR  LECTURES. 

routine  of  ritual,  while  such  a  thing  as  a 
public  man  addressing  the  masses  was  un- 
known. Sir  William  Pitt,  one  of  Eng- 
land's greatest  statesman  and  orators,  in 
all  his  public  life  uttered  only  two  sen- 
tences to  the  public  outside  of  Parliament. 
If  William  Jennings  Bryan  had  lived  in 
Pitt's  day,  he  would  have  been  ignored  by 
the  Prime  Minister  of  England. 

The  first  leaders  of  thought  to  come  in 
contact  with  the  people  and  thrill  them  by 
the  power  of  speech  were  John  Wesley 
and  George  Whitefield.  "On  a  mount 
called  Rose  Hill,  near  Bristol,  England, 
George  Whitefield  laid  the  foundation  of 
the  modern  platform."  From  Rose  Hill 
his  audiences  grew  until  on  Kensington 
Commons  thirty  thousand  people  tried  to 
get  within  reach  of  his  captivating  voice. 
It  has  been  truthfully  said:  "At  the  feet 
of  John  Wesley  and  George  Whitefield  the 
people  of  England  learned  their  first  les- 
sons in  popular  government." 

This  innovation,  however,  met  with 
sneers,  jeers  and  persecution  from  the  es- 
tablished conservatism  of  church  and 
state,  and  when  the  platform  attempted  to 
enter  the  arena  of  politics,  Parliament 
decided  the  "public  clamor  must  end."  A 


,  PLATFORM  EXPERIENCES    235 

bill  was  framed  forbidding  any  public 
gatherings  except  such  as  should  be  called 
by  the  magistrates. 

In  advocating  this  bill  a  member  of  Par- 
liament said :  "The  art  of  political  discus- 
sion does  not  belong  outside  of  Parlia- 
ment. Men  who  are  simply  merchants, 
mechanics  and  farmers  must  not  be  al- 
lowed to  publicly  criticise  the  constitu- 
tion." To  this  the  platform  made  reply: 
"From  such  as  we  the  Master  selected 
those  who  were  to  sow  the  seed  of  living 
bread  in  the  wilds  of  Galilee."  The  bill 
passed  by  an  overwhelming  majority. 
Punishment  ran  from  fine  and  imprison- 
ment to  years  of  exile  from  the  country, 
and  from  this  time  on,  the  battle  raged 
between  Parliament  and  platform.  Later 
on  we  shall  note  the  results. 

I  am  often  interviewed  by  men,  and 
sometimes  by  women,  who  desire  to  reach 
the  platform.  They  say  to  me:  "What 
steps  did  you  take?" 

My  answer  is,  I  never  took  any ;  I  stum- 
bled, was  picked  up  by  circumstances  and 
pitched  upon  the  platform. 

At  a  picnic  in  a  grove  near  Winchester, 
Ky.,  in  1869,  a  noted  temperance  orator 
was  to  give  an  address.  He  failed  to  reach 


236         POPULAR  LECTURES. 

the  grove  on  time,  and  I  was  prevailed 
upon  to  act  as  time-killer  until  his  arrival. 
I  was  not  entirely  without  experience, 
having  belonged  to  a  debating  society  in  a 
country  school. 

When  I  had  spoken  about  thirty  min- 
utes, to  my  great  relief,  the  orator  of  the 
day  made  his  appearance.  The  flattering 
comments  upon  my  talk  induced  me  to  ac- 
cept other  invitations  to  address  temper- 
ance meetings,  and  before  I  knew  what 
had  happened,  the  platform  was  under  my 
feet,  calls  were  numerous  and  my  life 
work  was  established.  I  suppose  those  who 
consult  me  are  encouraged  to  know  a  mere 
stumble  directed  my  course,  and  if  so,  by 
purpose  and  preparation  they  can  surely 
succeed. 

Some  persons  seem  to  think  lecturing 
a  very  simple  occupation,  requiring  only 
a  glib  tongue,  and  a  good  pair  of  lungs. 
Several  years  ago,  I  received  a  letter  from 
a  young  man  in  which  'he  wrote :  "I  heard 
you  lecture  last  week.  I  would  like  to 
become  a  lecturer  myself.  I  have  no  ex- 
perience and  very  little  education,  but  I 
have  a  very  strong  voice  and  am  sure  I 
could  be  heard  by  a  large  audience.  I  have 
been  working  in  a  horse-barn  but  am  now 


PLATFORM  EXPERIENCES.    237 

out  of  a  job.  If  I  had  a  lecture,  I  think 
I  could  make  a  living ;  besides  I  would  get 
to  see  the  country.  If  you  will  write  me 
one  I  will  send  you  two  dollars."  I  do  not 
know  whether  the  young  man  gauged  the 
price  by  the  estimate  of  the  lecture  he  had 
heard  me  give,  or  his  monetary  condition, 
but  if  audacity  is  a  requisite  for  the  plat- 
form, this  young  man  was  not  entirely 
without  qualification. 

This  is  an  extreme  case,  and  yet  there 
are  those  whose  minds  are  storehouses  of 
knowledge,  who  can  no  more  become  pop- 
ular platform  speakers,  than  could  the 
young  man,  who  was  ready  to  set  sail  on 
the  sea  of  oratory,  with  a  lusty  pair  of 
lungs  and  a  two  dollar  lecture. 

Charles  Spurgeon,  the  great  London 
preacher,  said :  "I  have  never  yet  learned 
the  art  of  lecturing.  If  you  have  ever  seen 
a  goose  fly,  you  have  seen  Spurgeon  try- 
ing to  lecture." 

Mr.  Spurgeon  called  lecturing  an  art, 
and  why  not?  If  the  hand  that  paints  a 
picture  true  to  life  and  pleasing  to  the 
eye,  is  the  hand  of  an  artist,  why  is  not 
the  tongue  that  paints  a  picture  true  to 
life  and  pleasing  to  the  mind's  eye  the 
tongue  of  an  artist? 


238         POPULAR  LECTURES. 

It  is  an  art  to  know  how  to  get  hold  of 
an  audience.  There  was  an  occasion  in 
my  experience  when  I  had  extreme  neces- 
sity for  the  use  of  this  art.  When  Presi- 
dent Cleveland  wrote  his  Venezuela  mes- 
sage in  which  he  threatened  war  with 
England,  the  threat  was  published  in  To- 
ronto, Canada,  on  Saturday  and  I  was  an- 
nounced to  lecture  in  the  large  pavilion  on 
Sunday  afternoon. 

The  message  of  President  Cleveland  had 
aroused  the  patriotic  spirit  of  Canada. 
The  hall  was  packed.  It  seemed  to  me  I 
could  see  frost  upon  the  eyebrows  of  ev- 
ery man  and  icicles  in  the  ears  of  the 
women. 

When  introduced  there  was  a  painful 
silence.  I  began  by  saying:  "Doubtless 
many  of  you  have  come  to  hear  what  an 
American  has  to  say  about  Venezuela.  I 
must  admit  I  am  not  acquainted  with  the 
merits  of  the  question.  I  suppose,  how- 
ever, the  message  of  our  President  is  one 
of  the  arts  of  diplomacy.  But  I  do  know 
I  speak  the  sentiment  of  the  best  people  of 
my  country  when  I  say:  "May  the  day 
never  dawn  whose  peace  will  be  broken 
by  signal  guns  of  war  between  Great  Bri- 
tain and  the  United  States."  I  said : 


PLATFORM  EXPERIENCES.    239 

"When  John  and  Jonathan  forget, 

The  scar  of  anger's  wound  to  fret, 

And  smile  to  think  of  an  ancient  fued, 

Which  the  God  of  nations  turned  to  good ; 

Then  John  and  Jonathan  will  be, 

Abiding  friends,  o'er  land  and  sea ; 

In  their  one  great  purpose,  the  world  will 

ken, 
Peace  on  earth,  goodwill  to  men." 

The  great  audience  arose  and  cheered 
until  all  sense  of  chill  had  departed. 

It  is  not  only  an  art  to  get  hold  of  an 
audience,  but  equally  a  matter  of  good 
taste  to  know  when  to  let  go.  This  is  a 
qualification  some  have  not  acquired.  I 
followed  a  very  distinguished  man  several 
years  ago  and  the  comment  was :  "He  was 
fine  the  first  hour  and  a  half,  but  the  last 
hour  he  grew  tiresome." 

In  this  busy  age,  the  world  wants 
thoughts  packed  into  small  compass.  The 
average  audience  wants  a  preacher  to  put 
his  best  thoughts  into  a  thirty-minute 
package.  The  day  was,  when  people 
would  sit  on  backless  board  benches  and 
listen  to  a  sermon  of  two  hours ;  now  they 
won't  swing  in  a  hammock  and  endure 
one  of  more  than  fifty  minutes. 


240         POPULAR  LECTURES. 

Rev.  Dr.  Dewey,  of  Brooklyn,  New 
York,  tells  of  a  minister  who  was  given 
to  reading  his  sermons.  On  one  occasion 
when  he  had  read  about  twenty  minutes, 
he  'halted  and  said :  "I  have  a  young  dog 
at  my  house  that  is  given  to  chewing  pa- 
per. I  find  he  has  mutilated  my  manu- 
script, which  is  my  excuse  for  this  short 
sermon."  A  visiting  lady  after  service 
said :  "Doctor,  have  you  any  more  of  the 
breed  of  that  dog?  I  would  like  to  get 
one  for  our  pastor." 

In  this  age  of  crowded  moments  concen- 
tration means  executation;  energy  means 
success.  If  you  can't  put  fire  into  your 
sermon,  put  your  sermon  in  the  fire. 

A  few  years  ago  when  in  New  York 
City,  I  went  to  see  Madame  Bernhardt  in 
her  famous  play,  Joan  of  Arc.  She  spoke 
in  French,  an  unknown  tongue  to  me ;  but 
when  she  came  to  her  defense  before  the 
court,  I  realized  as  never  before  the  pow- 
er of  speech  and  action.  She  had  given 
one-fourth  of  that  marvelous  appeal, 
when  the  great  audience  arose  and  began 
to  cheer.  Madame  Bernhardt  folded  her 
arms,  bowed  her  head  and  waited  for  si- 
lence. 

When  order  was  restored  she  sprang  a 


PLATFORM  EXPERIENCES.    241 

step  forward.  It  seemed  to  me  every  fea- 
ture of  her  face,  every  finger  on  her 
hands,  every  gleam  of  eye  and  movement 
of  body  was  an  appeal  to  the  stern  tribu- 
nal. In  the  trembling,  murmuring  voice 
that  ran  like  a  strain  of  sad,  sweet  music 
through  sunless  gorges  of  grief,  the  great 
audience  read  her  plea  for  mercy  and 
wept.  Some  who  could  not  restrain 
their  emotion  sobbed  aloud. 

When  from  the  depths  of  solemn  sound 
that  same  voice  arose  like  the  swell  of  a 
silver  trumpet,  and  in  clarion  tones  de- 
manded justice,  cheer  after  cheer  testified 
to  the  power  of  the  orator  actress.  Nev- 
er was  there  a  sob  of  the  sea  more  mourn- 
ful, than  the  voice  of  Sarah  Bernhardt  as 
she  played  upon  the  harp  strings  of  pity ; 
and  never  did  words  rush  in  greater 
storm  fury  from  human  lips,  than  when 
she  demanded  justice.  No  stop  nor  note 
nor  pedal  nor  key  in  the  organ  of  speech 
was  left  untouched  by  this  genius  in  tragic 
art. 

It  would  be  well  if  every  public  speak- 
er could  hear  Sarah  Bernhardt  give  that 
defense  of  the  Maid  of  Orleans.  Indeed  I 
believe  if  the  forensic  eloquence  of  the 
stage  could  be  transferred  to  the  pulpit 


242         POPULAR  LECTURES. 

greater  audiences  and  greater  rewards 
would  follow.  If  you  doubt  this,  go  read 
the  sermons  of  George  Whitefield  or  the 
lectures  of  John  B.  Gough  and  you  will 
wonder  at  their  success  unless  you  take 
into  consideration  their  mysterious  power 
of  delivery. 

I  cannot  give  you  one  sentence  Madame 
Bernhardt  uttered,  but  I  do  know  the  in- 
fluence of  that  address  remains  with  me 
to  this  day  and  now  and  then  I  find  my- 
self reaching  out  after  the  secret  of  ora- 
tory. "It  is  not  so  much  what  you  say  as 
how  you  say  it,"  has  become  a  proverb. 

Some  years  ago  I  lectured  in  an  Iowa 
village  on  a  bitter  cold  evening.  The  rear 
of  the  hall  was  up  on  posts.  When  intro- 
duced there  was  only  one  inch  between 
my  shoe  soles  and  zero,  while  a  cold  wind 
from  a  broken  window  struck  the  back 
of  my  head.  It  occurred  to  me  that  if  I 
would  play  Bernhardt  I  might  save  a  spell 
of  pneumonia. 

In  a  few  moments  I  was  pacing  the 
platform,  swinging  my  arms  and  stamp- 
ing my  feet  to  keep  up  circulation.  I  put 
all  the  intensity,  activity  and  personality 
possible  into  one  hour  and  left  the  plat- 
form. 


PLATFORM  EXPERIENCES.    243 

Returning  to  the  hotel  a  commercial 
traveler  who  had  heard  me  a  number  of 
times  said:  "I  congratulate  you;  you  get 
younger.  I  never  heard  you  put  so  much 
life  into  your  lecture." 

I  replied:  "Why  man,  I  was  trying  to 
keep  my  feet  from  freezing." 

"Well,"  he  said :  "I  advise  you  to  go  on 
the  platform  every  evening  with  cold  feet." 

John  and  Charles  Wesley  were  going 
along  a  street  in  London  when  they  came 
upon  two  market  women  engaged  in  a 
wordy  war.  John  Wesley  said:  "Hold 
up,  Charles,  and  let's  learn  how  to  preach. 
See  how  these  women  put  earnestness  and 
even  eloquence  into  their  street  quarrel. 
Can't  we  be  just  as  earnest  and  eloquent 
in  dealing  out  the  truth?"  No  wonder 
John  Wesley  gave  such  impetus  to  the 
platform. 

It  is  said  what  John  Wesley  and  George 
Whitefield  were  to  the  religious  platform, 
Fox  and  Burke  became  later  on  to  the 
political  platform.  They  saw  the  plat- 
form was  fast  becoming  the  voice  of  pub- 
lic sentiment  and  dared  to  indorse  it. 

When  Mr.  Fox  made  his  first  platform 
address  he  said:  "This  is  the  first  time 
I  ever  had  the  privilege  of  addressing  an 


244         POPULAR  LECTURES. 

uncorrupted  assembly."  Going  back  into 
Parliament  he  said:  "Let's  put  an  end 
to  a  policy  that  separates  us  from  the  peo- 
ple. Let's  cut  all  cables,  snap  all  chains 
that  bind  us  to  an  unfriendly  shore  and 
enter  the  peaceful  harbor  of  public  con- 
fidence." 

When  Mr.  Burke  made  his  platform 
debut,  he  was  so  inspired  by  the  enthus- 
iasm of  the  people,  it  is  said,  he  made  the 
greatest  speech  ever  made  in  the  English 
language  up  to  that  time.  When  he  ap- 
peared in  Parliament  next  evening  a  lead- 
er of  the  government  took  occasion  to  de- 
nounce the  platform  as  a  disturber  of 
public  peace,  directing  his  remarks  to  Mr. 
Burke.  The  great  orator  was  ready  with 
the  reply:  "Yes,  and  the  firebell  at  mid- 
night disturbs  public  peace,  but  it  keeps 
you  from  burning  in  your  beds." 

It  would  seem  after  years  of  fruitless 
effort  to  silence  the  platform,  Parliament 
would  accept  it  as  a  power  for  good  and 
give  it  wise  direction.  Yet  we  are  in- 
formed that  in  face  of  its  growing  pop- 
ularity when  Henry  Hunt  attempted  to 
address  an  audience  in  a  grove  in  Eng- 
land, a  regiment  of  cavalry  charged  the 
grove.  Eleven  were  killed  and  several 


PLATFORM  EXPERIENCES.    245 

hundred  wounded.  Henry  Hunt  was 
thrown  into  prison,  but  when  released  la- 
ter one  hundred  thousand  people  welcom- 
ed him  to  the  streets  of  London. 

As  well  now  had  Parliament  attempted 
to  prevent  a  London  fog  as  to  prohibit 
platform  meetings.  John  Bright  said: 
"When  I  consider  these  meetings  of  the 
people,  so  sublime  in  their  vastness  and 
resolution,  I  see  coming  over  the  hilltops 
of  time  the  dawning  of  a  nobler  and  bet- 
ter day  for  my  country." 

It  is  our  privilege  to  live  in  the  good 
day  of  which  John  Bright  spoke.  Yet 
while  a  public  speaker  today  is  in  no  dread 
of  arrest  or  imprisonment  for  any  decent 
expression  of  opinion,  the  platform  is  not 
without  its  hindrances ;  and  some  of  these 
will  never  be  cured,  while  babies  cry, 
architects  sacrifice  acoustics  to  style, 
young  people  do  their  courting  in  public, 
janitors  smother  thoughts  in  foul  air,  and 
milliners  persist  in  building  up  artistic 
barriers  between  speaker  and  audience. 

Here  let  me  give  a  bit  of  advice  to  my 
own  sex.  Gentlemen,  when  you  purchase 
a  new  hat,  no  matter  if  a  ten  dollar  silk, 
or  a  twenty  dollar  panama,  do  not  attend 
a  lecture,  and  taking  a  seat  in  front  of 


246          POPULAR  LECTURES. 

some  intelligent  lady  forget  to  remove 
your  hat.  The  lady  may  want  to  see  the 
speaker's  face,  and  he  may  need  the  in- 
spiration of  her  countenance,  while  you 
are  interfering  with  both.  "A  hint  to 
the  wise  is  sufficient.'*  This  -hint  may  not 
be  in  accord  with  the  advice  of  Paul,  but 
Paul  never  saw  a  twentieth  century 
"Merry  Widow"  hat.  Then  too,  Paul  was 
already  inspired  and  didn't  need  the  in- 
spiration of  human  countenances.  I  am 
speaking  for  the  uninspired,  to  whom  an 
audience  of  hatless  heads  is  an  inspira- 
tion. 

But  few  persons  realize  how  a  public 
speaker  is  affected  by  little  influences.  The 
flitting  of  a  blind  bat  over  a  church  audi- 
ence on  a  summer  evening,  will  mar  the 
most  fascinating  flight  of  eloquence  ever 
plumed  from  a  pulpit. 

When  Nancy  Hanks  broke  the  world's 
trotting  record  at  Independence,  Iowa, 
some  years  ago,  her  former  owner,  Mr. 
Hart  Boswell,  of  Lexington,  who  raised 
and  trained  her,  was  asked  if  Nancy 
would  ever  lower  that  record.  He  re- 
plied: "Well,  if  the  time  comes  that  the 
track  is  just  right,  the  atmosphere  just 
right,  the  driver  just  right  and  Nancy 


PLATFORM  EXPERIENCES.    247 

just  right,  I  believe  she  will."  See  the 
combination.  Break  it  anywhere  and  the 
brave  little  mare  would  fail. 

Just  so  speakers  are  affected  by  condi- 
tions, by  acoustics,  atmosphere,  size  and 
temper  of  the  audience,  and  the  speaker's 
own  mental  and  physical  condition.  Many 
a  good  sermon  has  been  killed  by  a  poor 
sexton.  Many  a  grand  thought  has  per- 
ished in  foul  air. 

Charles  Spurgeon  was  preaching  to  a 
large  audience  in  a  mission  church  in 
London,  when  want  of  ventilation  affect- 
ed speaker  and  audience.  Mr.  Spurgeon 
said  to  a  member  of  the  church:  "Broth- 
er, lift  that  window  near  you." 

"It  won't  lift,"  replied  the  brother. 

"Then  smash  the  glass  and  I'll  pay  the 
bill  to-morrow,"  said  Spurgeon. 

Suppose  the  great  horse  Uhlan  should 
be  announced  to  trot  against  his  record; 
suppose  at  the  appointed  time,  with  the 
grandstand  crowded  and  every  condition 
favorable,  as  the  great  trotting  wonder 
reached  the  first  quarter  pole,  some  one 
were  to  run  across  the  track  just  ahead 
of  the  horse,  then  another  and  another; 
what  kind  of  a  record  would  be  made? 

What  management  would  allow  a  horse 


248         POPULAR  LECTURES. 

to  be  thus  handicapped?  Where  is  the 
man  who  would  be  so  inconsiderate  as  to 
thus  hinder  a  horse?  Yet  when  a  minis- 
ter has  worked  while  the  world  slept,  that 
he  not  only  might  sustain  his  record  but 
gather  souls  into  the  kingdom;  when  the 
opening  exercises  have  given  sufficient 
time  for  all  to  be  present;  when  the  text 
is  announced  and  the  preacher  is  reaching 
out  after  the  attention  and  sympathy  of 
his  audience  some  one  enters  the  door, 
walks  nearly  the  full  length  of  the  aisle; 
then  another  and  then  two  more,  each  one 
crossing  the  track  of  the  preacher  and  yet 
he  is  expected  to  keep  up  his  record  and 
make  good.  If  you  are  a  friend  of  your 
pastor  be  present  when  he  announces  his 
text;  give  him  your  attention  and  thus 
cheer  him  on  as  you  would  your  favorite 
horse. 

An  eminent  minister  said:  "There,  I 
had  a  good  thought  for  you,  but  the  creak- 
ing of  the  new  boots  of  that  brother  com- 
ing down  the  aisle  knocked  it  quite  out 
of  my  head." 

One  who  had  heard  me  many  times 
said:  "Why  do  you  do  better  at  Ocean 
Grove  than  anywhere  else  I  hear  you?" 
My  answer  was:  "Because  of  conditions. 


PLATFORM  EXPERIENCES.    249 

The  great  auditorium  seats  ten  thousand, 
the  atmosphere  is  invigorated  by  salt  sea 
breezes;  a  choir  of  five  hundred  sing  the 
audience  into  a  receptive  mood  and  the 
speaker  is  borne  from  climax  to  climax 
on  wings  of  applause." 

I  would  not  have  you  infer  from  this 
that  a  large  audience  is  always  necessary 
to  success.  Indeed  the  most  successful 
and  satisfactory  address  I  ever  made  was 
to  an  audience  of  one.  If  I  can  make  as 
favorable  an  impression  upon  you  as  I  did 
upon  that  young  lady  I  shall  be  gratified. 

In  Pauling,  New  York,  Chauncey  M. 
Depew  by  his  attention  and  applause  in- 
spired me  more  than  the  whole  audience 
beside;  while  time  and  again  have  I  been 
helped  to  do  my  best  by  the  presence  of 
that  matchless  queen  of  the  platform, 
Frances  E.  Willard. 

The  very  opposite  of  greatness  has  had 
the  same  effect  upon  me.  At  the  Pontiac, 
Illinois,  Chautauqua  after  lecturing  to  a 
great  audience,  I  was  invited  by  the  sup- 
erintendent of  the  State  Reformatory  to 
address  the  inmates  of  the  prison.  At  the 
close  of  a  thirty  minutes'  talk  the  superin- 
tendent said :  "Your  address  to  my  boys 


250          POPULAR  LECTURES. 

exceeded  the  one  you  gave  at  the  Chau- 
tauqua." 

Why  was  it  better?  At  the  Chautauqua 
I  was  trying  to  entertain  and  instruct  an 
intelligent  audience.  Within  the  grey 
walls  of  that  prison  I  was  reaching  down 
to  the  very  depths,  endeavoring  to  lift  up 
human  beings,  marred  and  scarred  by  sin 
and  crime,  but  dear  to  the  mothers  who 
bore  them  and  the  Savior  who  died  for 
them. 

If  I  were  a  preacher  in  New  York  City 
and  were  announced  to  preach  a  sermon 
on  home  missionary  work  I  would  not  go 
to  the  church  by  way  of  the  mansions  of 
the  rich  where  children,  shod  in  satin 
slippers  dance  and  play  over  velvet  tapes- 
try, but  by  way  of  the  slums  where  I 
would  meet  the  children  of  misery,  where, 

"To  stand  at  night  'mid  the  city's  throng, 
And  scan  the  faces  that  pass  along, 
Is  to  read  a  book  whose  every  leaf 
Is  a  history  of  woe  and  want  and  grief. 
As  in  tears  of  sorrow  and  sin  and  shame, 
You  read  a  story  of  blight  and  blame, 
Your  heart  goes  further  than  hand  can 

reach 
And    you    feel    a    sermon    you    cannot 

preach." 


PLATFORM  EXPERIENCES.    251 

Whoever  would  prove  worthy  of  the 
platform  must  have  a  message  and  give  to 
it  the  devotion  of  mind,  heart  and  con- 
science, no  matter  whether  his  purpose  is 
to  convince  by  reasoning,  convert  by  ap- 
peal, delight  by  rhetoric,  or  cure  melan- 
choly by  humor.  Each  has  its  useful  in- 
fluence on  the  platform. 

Some  persons  have  an  impression  that 
the  student  deals  in  logic,  while  the  orator 
simply  starts  his  tongue  to  running,  and 
goes  off  and  leaves  it  to  work  automat- 
ically. 

Bishop  Robert  Mclntyre  was  one  of  the 
greatest  pulpit  orators  of  his  age,  yet  I 
dare  say  this  gifted  man  gavo  as  much 
time  and  thought  to  his  famous  word 
painting  of  the  Chicago  fire,  as  Joseph 
Cook  ever  gave  to  mining  any  treasure  of 
thought  he  laid  upon  the  altar  of  educa- 
tion. 

I  know  many  teachers  of  oratory  say: 
"Study  your  subject,  analyze  it  well,  and 
leave  words  to  the  inspiration  of  the  occa- 
sion." But  suppose  when  the  occasion 
comes,  instead  of  inspiration  one  has  in- 
digestion, then  what? 

While  a  speaker  should  not  be  so  con- 
fined to  composition  that  he  cannot  reach 


252          POPULAR  LECTURES. 

out  after,  and  cage  any  passing  bird  of 
thought,  yet  as  the  leaf  of  the  mulberry 
tree  must  go  through  the  stomach  of  a 
silk-worm,  before  it  can  become  silk,  so 
climaxes  should  be  warped  and  woofed 
into  language  before  they  can  be  forceful 
and  beautiful. 

At  the  Lincoln,  Nebraska.  Assembly 
some  years  ago  a  noted  humorist  gave  an 
address  on  the  "Philosophy  of  Wit."  He 
called  oratory  a  lost  art,  and  to  prove  his 
contention  he  quoted  from  William  Jen- 
nings Bryan's  famous  Chicago  convention 
speech.  He  said:  "What  would  a  young 
woman  think  of  her  lover  who  would  say 
'My  darling,  the  crown  of  thorns  shall 
never  be  pressed  down  upon  your  fair 
brow?' '  The  humorist  expected  applause 
but  it  failed  to  materialize,  for  Mr.  Bryan 
is  highly  respected  in  his  state  and  his 
oratory  is  a  charm  wherever  he  is  heard. 
The  speaker  not  only  exhibited  poor 
taste,  but  his  wit  was  pointless,  for  when 
a  man  can  go  before  a  convention  of  four- 
teen hundred  delegates  and  by  one  burst 
of  eloquence  capture  the  convention,  se- 
cure the  nomination  for  the  presidency, 
and  then  with  the  press  and  the  leaders  of 
his  party  against  him  go  up  and  down  the 


PLATFORM  EXPERIENCES.    253 

country,  and  from  the  rear  of  a  railroad 
train,  almost  capture  the  White  House, 
the  day  of  oratory  is  not  gone  by. 

Schriner,  the  great  animal  painter, 
painted  the  picture  of  a  bony  mule  eating 
a  tuft  of  hay.  That  picture  sold  in  Pe- 
tersburg, Russia,  for  fifteen  thousand  dol- 
lars, while  the  original  mule  sold  for  one 
dollar  and  thirty  cents.  If  the  painting 
of  Schriner  made  in  the  price  of  that 
mule,  a  difference  of  fourteen  thousand, 
nine  hundred,  ninety-eight  dollars  and 
seventy  cents  why  is  not  word  painting 
worth  something? 

Listen,  while  I  give  you  a  short  extract 
from  the  address  of  James  G.  Elaine  at 
the  memorial  service  of  our  martyr  Pres- 
ident Garfield.  With  the  audience  wrought 
up  to  the  greatest  sympathy  by  his  tribute 
he  said : 

"Surely  if  happiness  can  come  from 
robust  health,  ideal  domestic  life  and  hon- 
ors of  the  world  James  A.  Garfield  was  a 
happy  man  that  July  morning.  One  mo- 
ment strong,  erect  with  promise  of  peace- 
ful, useful  years  of  life  before  him:  The 
next  moment  wounded,  bleeding,  helpless. 

"Through  the  days  and  weeks  of  agony 
that  followed,  he  saw  his  sun  slowly  sink- 


254          POPULAR  LECTURES. 

ing,  the  plans  and  purposes  of  his  life 
broken  and  the  sweetest  of  household  ties 
soon  to  be  severed. 

"Masterful  in  mortal  weakness  he  be- 
came the  center  of  a  nation's  love,  and  en- 
shrined in  the  prayers  of  the  Christian 
world. 

"As  the  end  drew  near,  his  youthful 
yearning  for  the  sea  returned.  The  White 
House  palace  of  power  became  a  hospital 
of  pain.  He  begged  to  be  taken  from  its 
prison  walls  and  stifling  air. 

"Silently,  tenderly  the  love  of  a  great 
people  bore  the  pale  sufferer  to  the  long- 
fci-for  healing  of  the  sea.  There  with 
wan  face  lifted  to  the  cooling  breeze,  he 
looked  wistfully  out  upon  the  changing 
ivonders  of  the  ocean;  its  far-off  sails 
white  in  the  morning  light;  its  rest- 
less waves  rolling  shoreward  to  break  in 
the  noon-day  sun ;  the  red  clouds  of  even- 
ing arching  low,  kissing  the  blue  lips  of 
the  sea,  and  above  the  serene,  silent  path- 
way to  the  stars. 

"Let  us  believe  his  dying  eyes  read  a 
mystic  meaning  only  the  parting  soul  can 
know ;  that  he  heard  the  waves  of  the  eb- 
bing tide  of  life  breaking  on  the  far-off 
shore,  and  felt  already  upon  his  wasted 


PLATFORM  EXPERIENCES.    255 

brow  the  calm,  sweet  breath  of  heaven's 
morning." 

Place  behind  these  utterances  the  rich 
voice  and  magnetic  manner  of  the 
"Plumed  Knight"  of  the  platform,  and 
you  can  realize  what  oratory  means. 

If  you  will  here  pardon  me  for  going 
from  the  sublime  to  the  ridiculous,  I  will 
show  you  how  a  bit  of  a  school  boy  rhet- 
oric may  win  its  way  over  solid  argument. 
In  the  country  school  I  attended,  there 
was  a  debating  society.  Parents  as  well 
as  their  sons  were  admitted  to  the  society 
and  the  public  was  invited  to  the  debates. 
On  one  occasion  the  question  for  debate 
was:  "Which  is  the  more  attractive,  the 
works  of  nature  or  the  works  of  art?" 

There  had  been  an  appeal  from  a  gener- 
al debate  and  this  time  one  speaker  was 
chosen  from  each  side.  My  father  was 
chosen  to  represent  the  negative  and  I 
the  affirmative.  My  father  was  a  good 
speaker  but  so  fond  of  facts  he  had  no 
use  for  rhetoric.  I  had  the  opening  ad- 
dress of  thirty  minutes,  my  father  had 
forty-five  minutes  and  I  had  fifteen  min- 
utes to  close  the  debate. 

As  father  talked  I  wondered  how  he 
ever  got  hold  of  so  many  facts.  He  piled 


256         POPULAR  LECTURES. 

them  up  until  my  first  address  was  swept 
away  by  the  triumphs  of  art.    The  only 
hope  I  had  for  the  affirmative  was  in  the 
closing  fifteen  minutes.     Fortunately  for 
me,  the  judge  was  a  bachelor  and  very 
much  in  love  with  a  golden-haired,  ac- 
complished young  woman  who  lived  in  a 
country  home  very  near  the  schoolhouse, 
and  was  then  in  the  audience.    In  closing 
the  debate  I  referred  to  father's  address 
in  a   complimentary  manner,   and   then 
asked  the  judge  to  be  seated  in  imagina- 
tion on  a  knoll  nearby.     On  one  side  of 
that    knoll    I  placed  all    my  father  had 
claimed  for  art,  withholding  nothing.   On 
the  other  side  was  the  home  of  this  Blue 
Grass  belle.    I  began  a  description  of  her 
home  and  personality.    I  pictured  "the  or- 
chard, the  meadow,  the  deep  tangled  wild- 
wood   and  every  loved   spot"   the  judge 
well  knew.    I  pictured  the  brook  that  ran 
through  the  meadow  into  the  woodland 
and  on  down  the  valley,  singing  as  it  ran, 

"I  wind  about  and  in  and  out, 
With  here  a  blossom  sailing; 

Here  and  there  a  lusty  trout, 
And  here  and  there  a  grey-ling." 

When  my  time  was  half  gone  I  felt  I 


PLATFORM  EXPERIENCES.    257 

was  gone  too  unless  I  could  get  a  little 
nearer  the  heart  of  the  judge.  Opening 
the  door  art  had  made  to  shut  in  the  flow- 
ers of  a  lovely  family  I  brought  out  the 
golden-haired  girl. 

Taking  off  the  sun-bonnet  of  art,  that 
the  good-night  kisses  of  the  sinking  sun 
might  enrich  her  rosy  cheeks  and  golden 
tresses,  I  sent  her  strolling  down  the 
winding  walk  hedged  in  by  hawthorn  and 
hyacinth  to  the  water's  brink.  Here  I 
gave  her  a  cushion  of  bluegrass,  and  with 
the  rising  moon  pouring  its  shimmering 
sheen  upon  the  ripples  at  her  feet,  I  sent 
her  voice  floating  away  on  the  evening  air 
singing:  "Roll  on  silver  moon,  guide  the 
traveler  on  his  way."  Here  the  audience 
cheered,  the  judge  smiled  and  I  felt  en- 
couraged. 

With  but  two  minutes  left  I  had  the 
shapely  fingers  of  nature,  take  out  the 
hair-pins  of  art  and  the  golden  tresses 
fall  about  the  snowy  neck  of  nature.  Then 
came  the  untying  of  the  shoe-strings  of 
art;  off  came  the  shoes  and  stockings  of 
art,  and  the  pretty  feet  of  nature  were 
dipping  in  the  limpid  stream.  I  said, 
"Judge,  the  question  is,  which  is  the  more 
attractive,  the  works  of  nature  or  the 


258         POPULAR  LECTURES. 

works  of  art?  With  my  father's  picture 
of  steam  engines,  stage  coaches,  reapers, 
binders,  mowing  machines  and  every 
known  triumph  of  art  on  one  side ,  on  the 
other  the  highest  type  of  the  world's 
creation,  a  beautiful  woman,  the  stars  of 
nature  stooping  to  kiss  her  brow,  and 
laughing  waters  of  nature  leaping  to  kiss 
her  .feet;  where  your  eyes  would  rest 
there  let  your  decision  be  given." 

After  the  debate  a  friend  said  to  me: 
"It  was  that  last  'home  picture  that  saved 
you."  My  father  who  heard  the  remark 
said,  "Yes,  a  picture  of  a  red-headed  girl 
washing  her  feet  in  a  goose  branch."  1 
may  add,  I  was  careful  after  the  contest 
not  to  get  very  near  the  young  lady  with 
whom  I  had  taken  such  platform  liberty, 

Reason,  rhetoric,  pathos,  poetry,  dic- 
tion, gesture,  wit  and  humor,  each  has  its 
place  on  the  platform.  While  logic  sounds 
the  depths  of  thought,  humor  ripples  its 
surface  with  laughing  wavelets.  While 
reason  cultivates  the  cornfields  of  the 
mind,  rhetoric  beautifies  the  pleasure  gar- 
dens. 

John  B.  Gough  was  the  most  popular 
platform  orator  of  his  day.  He  began  lec- 
turing at  from  two  to  five  dollars  an  even- 


PLATFORM  EXPERIENCES.    259 

ing.  He  grew  in  popularity  untM  he  was 
in  demand  at  five  hundred  dollars  a  lec- 
ture, and  no  one  before  or  since  more  suc- 
cessfully used  all  the  arts  of  the  platform, 
from  the  comic  that  drew  the  very  rabble 
of  the  streets,  to  flights  of  eloquence  that 
captured  college  culture.  It  has  been  well 
said :  "While  Gough  was  a  great  preacher 
of  righteousness,  he  was  a  whole  theatre 
in  dramatic  delivery."  Lecturers,  like 
preachers,  are  fishers  of  men,  and  there 
are  as  many  kinds  of  people  in  an  average 
audience  as  there  are  kinds  of  fish  in  the 
sea.  It  requires  variety  of  bait  for  hu- 
manity as  well  as  for  fish. 

Sam  Jones  used  slang  as  one  kind  of 
bait  and  he  used  to  say :  "It  beats  all  how 
it  draws."  I  saw  this  verified  at  Ottawa, 
Kansas,  Chautauqua.  Giving  a  Saturday 
evening  lecture  he  baited  the  platform 
with  slang,  satire  and  humor.  Sunday 
afternoon  an  hour  before  time  for  his  lec- 
ture the  people  were  hurrying  to  the  audi- 
torium. When  presented  to  the  great  au- 
dience he  said:  "Record!  Record!  Rec- 
ord!" I  remember  the  sermon  as  one  of 
the  sweetest  and  most  powerful  I  ever 
heard.  Its  influence  will  not  cease  this 
side  the  eternal  morning. 


260         POPULAR  LECTURES. 

Rowland  Hill,  the  popular  London 
preacher,  used  quaint  humor  to  draw  the 
people,  and  powerful  appeal  to  sweep 
them  into  the  kingdom. 

It  is  said  the  fountain  of  laughter  and 
fountain  of  tears  lie  very  close  together. 
My  experience  has  been,  that  often  the 
best  way  to  the  fountain  of  tears  is  by  the 
way  of  the  fountain  of  laughter.  Some 
years  ago  at  Ocean  Grove,  New  Jersey,  I 
was  to  lecture  on  the  subject,  "Boys  and 
Girls,  Nice  and  Naughty."  A  wealthy 
widow  and  her  only  son  were  there  from 
New  York,  where  the  young  boy  had  been 
leading  a  "gay  life."  Ocean  Grove  with 
its  quiet,  moral  atmosphere  was  a  dull 
place  for  this  young  man.  He  happened 
to  read  the  subject  for  the  lecture  on  the 
bulletin  board,  and  thinking  it  suggestive 
of  humor  he  went  to  hear  the  lecture.  He 
had  what  he  went  for,  as  the  lecture  did 
deal  with  the  fountain  of  laughter,  but  it 
also  dealt  with  the  fountain  of  tears.  It 
swung  the  red  lantern  of  danger  athwart 
the  pathway  of  the  wayward  young  man. 
Following  a  story  of  mother  love,  I  said : 
"Young  man,  let  the  cares  and  burdens  of 
life  press  you  down  to  the  very  earth,  let 
the  great  waves  of  sorrow  roll  over  your 


PLATFORM  EXPERIENCES.    261 

soul,  but  let  no  act  of  yours  ever  roll  a 
clod  upon  the  coffin  of  her,  whose  image, 
enshrined  upon  the  inner  walls  of  your 
memory,  white  winters  and  long  bright 
summers  can  never  wash  away." 

A  minister  told  me  after,  that  in  a 
young  people's  meeting  this  young  man 
arose  and  said:  "I  attended  a  lecture  at 
Ocean  Grove,  thinking  I  would  have  a  hu- 
morous entertainment.  I  left  the  audi- 
torium the  saddest  soul  in  the  great  audi- 
ence. Going  down  to  the  beach  I  tried  to 
drive  away  the  spell,  but  it  grew  upon  me. 
I  could  see  how  I  had  grieved  my  mother, 
and  the  past  came  rolling  up  like  the 
waves  of  the  ocean.  I  shuddered  as  they 
broke  on  my  awakened  conscience  and 
quickened  memory.  Behind  me  was  an 
unhallowed  past,  and  before  me  the  brink 
of  an  awful  eternity.  There  and  then  I 
resolved  to  change  my  course.  Alone  un- 
der the  stars  I  made  my  resolve  and  then 
started  to  my  mother.  She  was  waiting 
for  me,  and  said:  'My  son,  I  wished  for 
you  at  the  lecture  this  evening.  I  think 
you  would  have  enjoyed  it.'  I  then  told 
her  I  was  determined  to  lead  a  new  life 
and  had  come  to  seal  my  vow  with  her 
kisa." 


262         POPULAR  LECTURES. 

That  young  man  went  to  the  lecture  to 
laugh,  he  left  to  walk  alone  with  God  un- 
der the  stars  by  the  ocean  deep,  there  to 
decide  to  lead  a  righteous  life,  and  seal 
the  vow  with  a  loving  mother's  kiss. 

So  while  in  my  humble  way  I  have  en- 
deavored to  use  the  arts  that  entertain  I 
have  cherished  the  purpose  to  better  hu- 
man lives. 

I  have  referred  to  the  platform  as  being 
baited  for  humanity.  Have  you  ever  con- 
sidered how  it  is  baited  to  resist  the  forces 
of  evil? 

The  day  was  when  Satan  had  an  attrac- 
tion trust  that  controlled  about  the  whole 
output  of  entertainment.  The  platform 
now  is  a  picture  gallery  where  is  to  be  had 
all  beauty  in  nature,  from  our  own  land 
to  the  land  of  the  midnight  sun. 

In  moving  pictures  it  presents  to  those 
who  never  saw  ship,  sail  or  sea,  the  land- 
ing of  a  great  steamer,  with  splashing  of 
spray  as  real  as  if  seen  from  the  dock. 
To  those  who  enjoy  music  it  furnishes 
band  concerts,  orchestra,  bell-ringing, 
quartettes,  solos,  plantation  melodies, 
rag-time  tunes  and  women  whistlers. 

The  platform  today  beats  the  devil  in 
output  of  entertainment.  It  has  scoured 


PLATFORM  EXPERIENCES.    263 

field  and  forest,  trained  birds  and  dogs 
to  round  out  the  program  of  a  chautau- 
qua. 

Its  breadth  takes  in  all  creeds  and 
kinds.  While  it  greets  with  waving  lilies 
Bishop  Vincent,  leader  of  the  great  chau- 
tauqua  movement,  it  cordially  welcomes 
the  priest,  the  Jew,  the  Chinaman,  the 
negro,  republican,  democrat,  progressive, 
prohibitionist,  socialist  and  suffragist. 

The  platform  has  grown  to  be  a  great 
university,  a  musical  festival,  a  zoological 
garden,  an  art  institute,  an  agricultural 
college  and  a  domestic  science  school. 

Do  you  ask  has  the  platform  any  blem- 
ishes? I  answer  yes.  All  enterprises 
have  their  blemishes.  The  press  is  a  po- 
tent power  for  good  and  yet  many  bad 
things  get  into  print.  Sometimes  from 
the  platform  come  voices  without  the 
ring  of  sincerity,  entertainments  without 
uplifting  influence  and  anecdotes  without 
respect  to  public  decency.  When  attend- 
ing platform  entertainments  one  should 
discriminate  as  when  eating  fish,  enjoy 
the  meat  and  discard  the  bones.  With 
good  taste  in  selection  one  rarely  ever 
need  go  away  hungry. 


264         POPULAR  LECTURES. 

I  am  often  asked:  "Where  do  you  find 
the  most  appreciative  audiences?" 

First,  I  would  reply,  in  rural  commu- 
nities where  the  people  are  not  surfeited 
with  entertainment.  Second,  I  would  say, 
applause  does  not  always  mean  apprecia- 
tion. It  is  said  "still  water  runs  deep." 
In  Chickering  Hall,  New  York,  one  Sun- 
day afternoon  a  lady  sat  before  me  whose 
diamonds  and  dress  indicated  wealth.  A 
lad  sat  by  her  side.  My  subject  was, 
"The  Safe  Side  of  Life  for  Young  Men." 
It  was  a  temperance  address  and  the 
thought  came  to  me;  that  lady  is  a  wine 
drinker  and  she  is  disappointed  that  I  am 
to  talk  temperance.  She  did  not  cheer 
with  the  audience,  nor  did  she  give  any 
expression  of  face  that  would  indicate  her 
interest,  except  that  she  kept  her  eyes 
fixed  upon  the  speaker.  At  the  close  she 
came  to  the  platform  and  said :  "I  brought 
my  son  with  me  and  you  said  what  I 
wanted  him  to  hear;  I  thank  you,"  and 
with  this  she  took  my  hand  saying, 
"Again  I  thank  you,"  and  turning  away, 
left  a  coin  in  my  hand. 

I  put  it  in  my  pocket,  and  on  returning 
to  the  hotel  found  she  had  given  me  a 
twenty  dollar  gold  piece.  That  was  gold 
standard  appreciation. 


PLATFORM  EXPERIENCES.    265 

I  am  frequently  asked:  "What  do  you 
recall  as  the  best  introduction  you  ever 
had?" 

I  have  had  all  kinds,  some  amusing,  but 
the  one  I  cherish  most  was  given  by  Ferd 
Schumacher,  the  deceased  oatmeal  king  of 
Akron,  Ohio.  He  came  to  this  country 
from  Germany.  By  industry  and  econo- 
my he  accumulated  enough  money  to  en- 
gage in  making  oatmeal.  When  he  had 
rounded  up  more  than  a  million  of  dollars 
in  wealth,  the  insurance  ran  out  on  his 
great  "Jumbo  Mills"  in  Akron.  The  in- 
surance company  raised  the  rate  and  while 
he  was  dickering  with  the  company,  the 
great  plant  was  swept  away  in  a  midnight 
fire.  Mr.  Schumacher  was  a  very  earnest 
temperance  man  and  was  to  introduce 
me  for  the  W.  C.  T.  U.  in  the  large  ar- 
mory the  Sunday  after  the  fire.  It  was 
supposed  he  would  not  be  present  because 
of  the  severe  strain  and  his  great  loss. 
But  prompt  to  the  minute  he  entered  the 
door,  and  'mid  the  applause  of  sympa- 
thetic friends  he  took  the  platform. 

In  presenting  the  speaker  he  said :  "La- 
dies and  schentlemen,  I  must  be  personal 
for  a  moment  while  I  thank  the  people  of 
Akron  for  their  sympathy.  I  did  not  know 


266         POPULAR  LECTURES. 

I  had  so  many  good  friends.  But  the  mill 
vot  vos  burned  vos  made  of  stone  and 
vood  and  nails  and  paint.  We  come  to 
talk  to  you  about  a  fire  vot  is  burning  up 
the  homes,  the  hopes,  the  peace  of  vimen 
and  children  and  the  immortal  souls  of 
men;  vill  you  please  take  your  sympathy 
off  of  Ferd  Schumacher  and  give  it  to  Mr. 
Bain  while  he  talks  about  the  great  fire 
of  intemperance." 

I  am  opposed  to  indiscriminate  immi- 
gration to  this  country,  but  if  the  old 
world  has  any  more  Ferd  Schumachers 
desiring  to  come  to  America,  may  He  who 
rules  winds  and  waves,  fill  with  harmless 
pressure  the  billows  on  which  they  ride 
and  give  them  safe  entrance  into  our 
country's  haven. 

Many  inquire  of  me  about  the  lyceum 
platform  as  a  profession.  My  answer  is: 
"like  the  famed  shield  it  has  two  sides." 
One  who  has  a  lovely  home  and  rarely 
leaves  it  said  to  me:  "I  envy  you  your 
life-work.  You  get  to  see  the  country, 
visit  the  great  cities,  meet  the  best  people 
and  get  fat  fees  for  your  lectures."  How 
distance  does  lend  enchantment  to  the 
view  sometimes! 

A  few  years  ago  we  notified  the  bureaus 


PLATFORM  EXPERIENCES.    267 

not  to  make  engagements  away  from  the 
railroads  in  the  northwest  during  the 
blizzard  months.  A  letter  came  saying: 
"Enter  Wessington  College,  outside  of 
Woonsocket."  We  supposed  outside  meant 
adjacent.  Arriving  at  Woonsocket  in  a 
blizzard  I  found  Wessington  seventeen 
miles  away.  Wrapped  in  robes  I  made 
the  drive,  arriving  about  six  o'clock  in  the 
evening.  On  arrival  I  was  informed  that 
smallpox  had  broken  out  in  the  village. 
The  hotel  had  been  quarantined  but  a 
room  had  been  engaged  for  me  in  a  prL 
vate  home.  While  taking  my  supper  my 
hostess  said:  "Would  you  know  smallpox 
if  you  were  to  see  the  symptoms?" 

"Know  what?  Why  do  you  ask  that?" 
I  asked. 

She  called  attention  to  the  face  of  her 
daughter  who  was  serving  the  supper. 
One  glance  and  my  appetite  fled,  as  I  said : 
"Excuse  me,  please.  I  must  get  ready  for 
my  lecture,"  and  I  left  the  room.  One 
hour  later  I  stood  before  a  vaccinated  au- 
dience with  visions  of  smallpox  floating 
before  me,  and  for  days  after  I  imagined 
I  could  feel  it  coming. 

Add  to  this  experience  midnight  rides 
on  freight  trains,  long  drives  in  rain,  mud 


268         POPULAR  LECTURES. 

and  storm,  ten  minutes  for  lunch  at  sand- 
wich counter,  eight  months  of  the  year 
away  from  home — the  only  heaven  one 
who  loves  his  family  has  on  earth,  and 
you  have  a  taste  of  the  side  my  neighbor 
did  not  see. 

There  is,  however,  a  bright  side.  Who- 
ever can  get  the  ear  of  the  public  from  the 
platform,  has  an  opportunity  to  sow  seed, 
the  fruit  of  which  will  be  gathered  by  an- 
gels when  he  has  gone  to  his  reward.  One 
so  long  on  the  platform  as  I  have  been, 
cannot  fail  in  having  experiences  that 
gladden  the  heart,  if  he  has  done  faithful 
service. 

Out  of  hundreds  I  select  one  experience 
that  should  encourage  all  who  labor  in  the 
Master's  vineyard.  I  had  traveled  two 
hundred  miles  in  a  day  to  reach  an  en- 
gagement, and  the  last  seven  miles  in  a 
buggy  over  a  miserable  road.  I  did  not 
reach  the  village  until  nine  o'clock.  With- 
out supper  and  chilled  by  the  ride,  I  threw 
off  my  wraps  and  wearily  made  my  way 
through  the  lecture.  A  little  later  in  my 
room  at  the  hotel,  while  I  was  taking  a 
lunch  of  bread  and  milk,  a  minister  en- 
tered and  said:  "You  'Seem  to  be  very 
tired."  When  I  answered,  "Never  more 


PLATFORM  EXPERIENCES.    269 

so,"  he  replied :  "I  have  a  story  to  tell  you 
which  will  perhaps  rest  you." 

Continuing  he  said:  "Some  twenty 
years  ago,  you  lectured  in  a  village  where 
there  was  a  state  normal  school.  It  was 
Sunday  evening.  At  the  hotel  were  three 
young  men,  and  to  see  the  girls  of  the  col- 
lege, these  young  men  went  to  the  lecture. 
One  was  the  only  son  of  a  wealthy  wid- 
ow. He  had  not  seen  his  mother  for 
months.  She  had  begged  him  to  come 
home,  but  he  was  sowing  his  wild  oats 
and  ashamed  to  face  his  mother.  That 
evening  you  made  an  earnest  appeal  to 
young  men  in  the  name  of  home  and 
mother.  The  arrow  went  to  the  heart  of 
the  wild  young  fellow.  On  returning  to 
the  hotel  he  said  to  his  companions: 
'Come  up  to  my  room,  let's  have  a  talk/ 
On  entering  the  room  he  closed  the  door 
and  said :  'Boys,  I  want  to  open  my  heart 
to  you.  I  am  overwhelmed  with  a  sense 
of  wrong-doing.  I  am  done  with  the  sa- 
loon, done  with  the  gambling  table,  done 
with  evil  associations.  I  am  going  home 
to-morrow  and  make  mother  happy. 
Boys,  let's  join  hands  and  swear  off  from 
drink  and  evil  habits:  let's  honor  our 
manhood  and  our  mothers.' 


270         POPULAR  LECTURES. 

"Now  for  the  sequel  that  I  think  will 
rest  you.  That  wild  boy  is  now  a  wealthy 
man.  I  give  you  his  name,  though  I  would 
not  have  you  call  it  in  public.  He  is  a 
Christian  philanthropist,  and  has  never 
broken  his  pledge.  The  second  boy  holds 
the  highest  office  in  the  gift  of  this  gov- 
ernment in  a  western  territory,  and  the 
third  stands  before  you  now,  an  humble 
minister  of  the  gospel." 

It  did  rest  me.  I  would  rather  have 
been  the  humble  instrument  in  turning 
those  three  young  men  to  a  righteouss 
life,  than  to  wear  the  brightest  wreath 
that  ever  encircled  a  stateman's  brow. 

For  such  men  as  Sylvester  Long,  Ro- 
land A.  Nichols,  Robert  Parker  Miles  and 
Bishop  Robert  Mclntyre  to  tell  me  my 
lectures  helped  to  shape  their  lives,  fills 
my  soul  with  joy  as  I  face  the  setting  sun. 

Chance,  the  noted  English  engineer, 
built  a  thousand  sea-lights,  shore-lights 
and  harbor-lights.  When  in  old  age  he 
lay  dying,  a  wild  storm  on  the  sea  seemed 
to  revive  him  by  its  association  with  his 
life-work.  He  said  to  the  watchers :  "Lift 
me  up  and  let  me  see  once  more  the  ocean 
in  a  storm." 

As  he  looked  out,     the  red     lightning 


PLATFORM  EXPERIENCES.    271 

ripped  open  the  black  wardrobe  of  the 
firmament,  and  he  saw  the  salted  sea 
driven  by  the  fury  of  the  hurricane  into 
great  billows  of  foam.  Sinking  back  up- 
on his  pillows  his  last  words  were: 
"Thank  God,  I  have  been  a  lighthouse 
builder,  and  though  the  light  of  my  life  is 
fast  fading,  the  beams  of  my  lighthouse 
are  brightening  the  darkness  of  many  a 
sailor's  night." 

When  my  life-work  closes,  and  my  plat- 
form experiences  are  ended,  I  would  ask 
no  better  name  than  that  of  an  humble 
lighthouse  builder,  who  here  and  th^re 
from  the  shore-points  of  life's  ocean,  riaa 
sent  out  a  friendly  beam,  to  brighten  the 
darkness  of  some  brother's  night^ 


VII 

THE  DEFEAT  OF  THE  NATION'S 
DRAGON. 

Joseph  Cook  said  in  one  of  his  Boston 
lectures:  "Whenever  the  temperance 
cause  has  attempted  to  fly  with  one  wing, 
whether  moral  suasion  or  legal  suasion, 
its  course  has  been  a  spiral  one.  It  will 
never  accomplish  its  mission  in  this  world, 
until  it  strikes  the  air  with  equal  vans, 
each  wing  keeping  time  with  the  other, 
both  together  winnowing  the  earth  of  the 
tempter  and  the  tempted." 

I  congratulate  the  friends  of  temper- 
ance upon  the  progress  both  wings  have 
made  since  the  beginning  of  their  flight. 

The  first  temperance  pledge  we  have 
any  record  of  ran  thus :  "I  solemnly  prom- 
ise upon  my  word  of  honor  I  will  abstain 
from  everything  that  will  intoxicate,  ex- 
cept at  public  dinners,  on  public  holidays 
and  other  important  occasions."  The  first 
prohibitory  law  was  a  local  law  in  a  vil- 
lage on  Long  Island  and  ran  thus:  "Any 
man  engaged  in  the  sale  of  intoxicating 
liquors,  who  sells  more  than  one  quart  of 

273 


274         POPULAR  LECTURES. 

rum,  whiskey  or  brandy  to  four  boys  at 
one  time  shall  be  fined  one  dollar  and  two 
pence." 

A  sideboard  without  brandy  or  rum  was 
an  exception,  while  the  jug  was  impera- 
tive at  every  log-raising  and  in  the  har- 
vest field.  It  was  said  of  even  a  Puritan 
community, 

"Their  only  wish  and  only  prayer, 
In  the  present  world  or  world  to  come, 
Is  a  string  of  Eels  and  a  jug  of  rum." 

When  Doctor  Leonard  Bacon  was  in- 
stalled pastor  of  the  First  Congregational 
Church  in  New  Haven,  Conn.,  in  1825, 
free  drinks  were  ordered  at  the  bar  of  the 
hotel,  for  all  visiting  members,  to  be  paid 
for  by  the  church.  Today  all  protestant 
churches  declare  against  the  drink  habit 
and  the  drink  sale.  Pulpits  are  thundering 
away  against  the  saloon.  Children  are 
studying  the  effects  of  alcohol  upon  the 
human  system  in  nearly  every  state  in  the 
Union.  Train  loads  of  literature  are  pour- 
ing into  the  homes  of  the  people.  A 
mighty  army  of  as  godly  women  as  ever 
espoused  a  cause  is  battling  for  the  home, 
against  the  saloon.  The  business  world  is 
demanding  total-abstainers,  and  fifty 


THE  DEFEAT  275 

millions  of  people  in  tlie  United  States  are 
living  under  prohibitory  laws. 

Not  only  in  this  but  in  every  civilized 
land  the  cause  of  temperance  is  growing. 
Eecently  in  France  it  was  found  there 
were  more  deaths  than  births,  which 
meant  France  was  dying.  A  commission 
was  appointed  to  look  into  the  causes. 
When  the  report  was  made,  alcohol  head- 
ed the  list.  Now  by  order  of  the  govern- 
ment linen  posters  are  put  up  in  pub- 
lic buildings,  and  on  these  in  blood  red 
letters  are  these  warnings :  "Alcohol  dan- 
gerous; alcohol  chronic  poison;  alcohol 
leads  to  the  following  diseases;  alcohol  is 
the  enemy  of  labor;  alcohol  disrupts  the 
home!" 

Who  would  have  thought  an  Emperor 
of  Germany  would  ever  "go  back"  on 
beer?  Emperor  William  in  an  address  to 
the  sailors  recommended  total-abstinence 
and  forbid  under  penalty  the  giving  of 
liquor  to  soldiers  in  the  world's  greatest 
war.  The  Czar  of  Russia  has  put  an  end 
to  the  government's  connection  with  the 
mauufacture  of  intoxicating  liquors,  and 
our  Secretary  of  the  Navy  has  banished 
it  from  the  ships  and  navy  yards.  Th<? 
New  York  Sun  says :  "The  business  worlft 


276         POPULAR  LECTURES. 

is  getting  to  be  one  great  temperance 
league."  For  many  years  it  was  confined 
to  the  realm  of  morals,  but  today  it  is  rec- 
ognized as  a  great  economic  question  and 
the  business  world  is  joining  the  church 
world  in  solving  the  liquor  problem. 

While  the  temperance  cause  has  been 
going  up  in  character,  the  drink  has  been 
going  down  in  quality.  The  old  time  dis- 
tiller used  to  select  his  site  along  some 
crystal  stream,  that  had  its  fountain-head 
in  the  mountains  and  ran  over  beds  of 
limestone.  With  sound  grain  and  pure 
water,  he  made  several  hundred  barrels 
of  whiskey  a  year,  and  after  five  to  ten 
years  of  ripening,  it  was  sent  out  with  the 
makers'  brand  upon  it.  Now  the  North 
American  of  Philadelphia,  one  of  our  lead- 
ing dailies  says,  rectifiers  (and  I  would 
prefix  one  letter  and  make  it  w-r-e-c-k-t-i- 
f-i-e-r-s)  take  one  barrel  from  the  distil- 
lery and  by  a  pernicious,  poisonous  pro- 
cess, make  one  hundred  barrels  from  one 
barrel. 

It  is  true  the  sting  of  the  adder  and  the 
bite  of  the  serpent  were  in  the  old-time 
whiskey,  but  it  was  as  pure  as  it  could  be 
made.  Doctor  Wiley,  Ex-Chief  of  the  Bu- 
reau of  Chemistry,  says :  "Eighty-five  per 


THE  DEFEAT  277 

cent,  of  all  the  whiskey  sold  in  the  sa- 
loons, hotels  and  club-rooms  is  not  whis- 
key at  all  but  a  cheap  base  imitation."  In 
the  different  concoctions  made  are  found 
aconite,  acquiamonia,  angelica  root,  ar- 
senic, alum,  benzine,  belladonna,  beet- 
root juice,  bitter  almond,  coculus-indicus, 
sulphuric  acid,  prussic  acid,  wood  alcohol, 
boot  soles  and  tobacco  stems.  No  wonder 
we  have  more  murders  in  this  republic 
than  in  any  civilized  land  beneath  the  sky 
in  proportion  to  population. 

Along  with  this  adulteration  of  the 
drink  has  gone  the  degeneracy  of  the  sa- 
loon and  the  seller.  The  day  was  when 
officers  in  churches  could  sell  liquor  and 
retain  their  membership.  Today  the  sa- 
loonkeeper is  barred  from  the  protestant 
churches,  barred  from  Masons,  Odd  Fel- 
lows, Knights  of  Pythias,  RecT  Men,  Wood- 
men, Maccabees  and  nearly  every  other 
fraternal  organization  of  the  world, 

The  saloon  itself  has  become  such  a  vic- 
ious resort,  that  when  the  police  look  for 
a  murderer  they  go  to  the  saloon.  When 
any  vile  character  is  sought  for,  the  saloon 
is  searched.  When  anarchists  meet  to 
plan  for  a  Hay-market  murder  in  Chicago, 
they  meet  in  the  saloon.  Wh«n  an  assas- 


278         POPULAR  LECTURES. 

sin  plans  to  shoot  down  our  President  at 
an  exposition,  he  goes  from  the  saloon. 
When  a  fire  breaks  out  in  Chicago  or  Bos- 
ton the  first  order  is,  close  the  saloons. 
Don't  close  any  other  business  house,  but 
close  the  saloon.  If  a  mob  threatens  Pitts- 
burg,  Cincinnati,  or  Atlanta,  close  the  sa- 
loons. If  an  earthquake  strikes  San  Fran- 
cisco, close  the  saloons.  In  our  large  cit- 
ies gambling  rooms  are  attached  to  the 
saloons  with  wine  rooms  above  for  wo- 
men, and  while  our  boys  are  being  ruined 
downstairs,  girls  are  destroyed  upstairs. 

There  are  many  thousands  of  women  in 
painted  shame,  who  would  now  be  safe  in- 
side life's  Eden  of  purity  but  for  the  sa- 
loon. The  South  Side  Club  of  Chicago 
said  in  1914:  "The  back  rooms  of  four 
hundred  and  forty-five  saloons  on  only 
three  streets  of  this  city  contribute  to  the 
delinquency  of  fourteen  thousand  girls  ev- 
ery twenty-four  hours."  Is  it  any  wonder 
the  saloons  hide  behind  green  blinds  or 
stained  glass  windows? 

There  is  a  fish  in  the  sea  known  as  the 
"Devil  Fish."  It  lies  on  its  back  with  op- 
en mouth  and  covers  itself  with  sea  moss. 
Over  its  open  mouth  is  a  bait.  When  an 
unsuspecting  fish  nibbles  at  the  bait,  with 


THE  DEFEAT  279^ 

a  quick  snap  it  is  caught  and  devoured. 
Do  you  see  any  analogy  between  this  fish 
and  a  certain  business  that  hides  itself 
behind  painted  windows  or  green  blinds 
and  hangs  out  a  bait  of  "free  lunch"  or 
"Turtle  Soup"?  A  fish  that  sets  a  trap 
for  its  kind  is  called  a  "Devil  Fish;"  a 
business  that  does  the  like  is  recognized  as 
a  legitimate  trade  and  permitted  for  the 
sake  of  revenue. 

Every  other  recognized  business  has  im- 
proved in  quality  with  the  years.  The  sa- 
loon has  grown  worse  and  worse,  until  it 
is  bad  and  only  bad ;  bad  in  the  beginning, 
bad  in  the  middle,  bad  in  the  end,  bad  in- 
side, outside,  upside,  downside.  It  is  so 
bad,  the  liquor  dealers  are  the  only  busi- 
ness men  who  are  ashamed  to  put  on  ex- 
hibition their  finished  products.  In  great 
expositions  other  trades  present  finished 
wares.  They  do  not  display  the  tools  used 
in  making  what  they  present  for  exhibi- 
tion but  the  finished  goods.  Not  so  with 
the  liquor  dealers ;  they  put  on  exhibition 
the  tools  with  which  they  work,  but  not  a 
single  specimen  of  the  finished  product  of 
their  trade  do  they  present  for  inspection. 

"That's  a  fine  fit  of  clothes  you  have, 
sir."  "Yes,"  says  the  tailor,  "I  put  up  that 
job ;  glad  you  like  my  work." 


280         POPULAR  LECTURES. 

"That's  a  fine  building  across  the  way." 
"Yes,"  says  the  architect,  "that's  my  job 
and  I  am  quite  proud  of  it." 

"That's  a  handsome  bonnet  you  wear, 
madam."  "Yes,"  says  the  milliner,  "that's 
my  creation  of  style  and  I  am  rather 
proud  of  my  work." 

Yonder  is  a  man  intoxicated.  He  stag- 
gers and  falls;  his  head  strikes  the  curb- 
stone ;  the  blood  besmears  his  face ;  the  po- 
lice lift  him  up  and  start  with  him  to  the 
station  house.  Did  you  hear  a  saloon 
keeper  say :  "That's  my  creation ;  I  put  up 
that  job  and  I'm  proud  of  my  work." 

Some  one  said  recently  in  defense  of  the 
business:  "The  saloon  keeper  deserves 
more  consideration."  This  writer  should 
know  that  consideration  has  been  the 
source  of  its  undoing.  Lord  Chesterfield 
considered  it  -and  said :  "Drink  sellers  are 
artists  in  human  slaughter."  Senator 
Morrill,  of  Maine,  considered  and  pro- 
nounced it  "the  gigantic  crime  of  all 
crimes."  Senator  Long,  of  Massachusetts 
considered  it  and  called  it  "the  dynamite 
of  modern  civilization."  Henry  W.  Grady, 
our  brilliant  southerner,  considered  it  and 
said :  "It  is  the  destroyer  of  men,  the  ter- 
ror of  women  and  the  shadow  on  the  face 


THE  DEFEAT  281 

of  childhood.  It  has  dug  more  graves  and 
sent  more  souls  to  judgment  than  all  the 
pestilences  since  Egypt's  plague,  or  all  the 
wars  since  Joshua  stood  before  the  walls 
of  Jericho."  The  New  York  Tribune  con- 
sidered it  and  said :  "It's  the  clog  upon  the 
wheels  of  American  progress."  The  Bi- 
ble considered  it  and  compares  its  influ- 
ence to  the  bite  of  serpents,  the  sting  of 
adders,  the  poison  of  asps,  and  heaps  the 
woes  of  God's  will  upon  it. 

Sam  Jones  said:  "When  the  Bible  says 
'woe,  you  better  stop,"  and  as  certain  as 
seed  time  brings  harvest  it  will  stop,  not 
because  of  the  Woman's  Christian  Tem- 
perance Union,  or  the  Anti-Saloon  League, 
or  the  Prohibition  Party,  but  because  afar 
back  in  the  blue  haze  of  the  past  the  seed 
of  prohibition  was  planted  in  the  soil  of 
Divine  truth. 

Ever  since  God  declared  woe  against 
the  evils  of  mankind,  the  batteries  of  the 
holy  Bible  have  been  trained  upon  the 
"wine  that  gives  its  color  in  the  cup,"  and 
the  man  who  "giveth  his  neighbor  drink 
and  maketh  him  drunken  also." 

It  will  stop,  because  error  cannot  stand 
agitation.  Whoever  espouses  the  cause  of 
error  must  evade  facts,  falsify  figures, 


282         POPULAR  LECTURES. 

libel  logic,  tangle  his  tongue  or  pen  with 
contradictions  and  wind  up  in  confusion. 

The  able  editor  of  the  Courier  Journal 
of  Kentucky  came  to  the  defense  of  this 
error,  and  with  all  his  brilliancy  and  cul- 
ture, he  resorted  to  personal  abuse  of  tem- 
perance workers,  because  he  could  not  oc- 
cupy a,  higher  plane  in  defense  of  the  sa- 
loon. He  made  up  what  he  called  an 
"ominum  gatherum,"  of  "bigots,"  "hay- 
seed politicians,"  "fake  philosophers," 
"cranks,"  "scamps,"  professional  sharps," 
"mad  caps  of  destruction,"  "preachers  who 
would  sell  'corner  lots  in  heaven,"  "a  riff- 
raff of  moral  idiots  and  red-nosed  angels." 

I  could  hardly  believe  my  own  eyes 
when  I  read  this  frantic  phillipic  from  one 
I  had  esteemed  so  highly  for  his  intellect; 
one  whose  element  is  up  where  eagles 
soar,  and  not  down  where  baser  birds 
feast  upon  rotten  spots  in  a  world  of 
beauty.  Only  a  few  days  before  I  had 
read  his  beautiful  tribute  to  Lincoln,  de- 
livered at  the  unveiling  in  Hodgenville,  in 
which  he  said  of  the  great  emancipator: 
"He  never  lost  his  balance  or  tore  a  pas- 
sion to  tatters,"  yet  the  finished  orator 
who  paid  the  tribute,  when  he  espouses 
the  cause  of  error,  flies  into  a  paroxysm 


THE  DEFEAT  283 

of  passion  and  tears  the  dignity  of  his 
own  self-control  into  shreds. 

Knowing  as  I  do  the  culture,  refinement 
and  polished  manners  of  the  great  journ- 
alist, I  wondered  what  aggravating  force 
could  have  so  unbalanced  his  mental 
scales  and  led  him  to  so  bitterly  denounce 
those,  whose  only  offense  is,  trying  to  do 
what  Lincoln  did,  abolish  an  evil.  If  this 
resourceful  writer  were  only  converted 
to  the  truth  on  this  question,  what  an 
"ominum  gatherum"  he  could  make  from 
the  work  of  the  saloon  curse. 

The  clergymen,  called  "canting,  diaboli- 
cal preachers,"  deserve  more  respectfu) 
consideration  from  one  who  well  knows 
their  sincerity.  They  are  men  of  brains, 
heart  and  conscience;  men  who  believe 
that  righteousness  rather  than  revenue 
exalts  a  nation,  and  that  sin,  no  matter 
how  much  money  invested  in  it,  is  a  re- 
proach to  any  people.  These  ministers 
believe  it  to  be  morally  wrong  to  convert 
God's  golden  grain  into  what  debases 
mankind.  They  preach  that  what  is  mor- 
ally wrong  can  never  be  made  politically 
right.  With  them  it  is  a  matter  of  deep, 
permanent  conviction.  Such  attacks  are 
made  to  divert  attention  from  the  accused 
at  the  bar  of  public  opinion. 


284         POPULAR  LECTURES. 

It  is  the  saloon  that  is  on  trial,  not 
cranks,  or  moral  idiots,  or  ministers. 
The  saloon  is  charged  with  being  the  ene- 
my of  every  virtue  and  ally  of  every  vice, 
that  it  injures  public  health,  public  peace 
and  public  morals.  The  Supreme  Court 
says :  "No  legislature  has  the  right  to  bar- 
ter away  public  health,  public  peace  or 
the  public  morals;  the  people  themselves 
cannot  do  so,  much  less  their  servants." 

In  face  of  this  declaration  of  the  Su- 
preme Court,  legislators  do  barter  away 
public  health,  public  peace  and  public 
morals  to  the  organized  liquor  traffic.  All 
along  the  cruel  career  of  this  enemy  of 
peace,  health  and  morals,  it  has  been 
pampered  and  petted  by  politicians  who 
have  been  as  much  charmed  by  its  prom- 
ise of  votes,  as  was  Eve  in  the  Garden  of 
Eden  by  the  serpent's  assurance.  Deceiv- 
ed by  the  serpent  of  the  still,  they  have 
not  only  disregarded  the  decision  of  the 
Supreme  Court  but  defied  God's  plan  of 
dealing  with  sin.  They  have  persisted  in 
trying  to  regulate  an  irregularity  in  mor- 
als by  licensing  the  greatest  sin  of  the 
century,  and  have  done  so  to  their  shame 
and  failure  in  any  regulation  effort  ever 
made.  The  only  way  to  cure  chills  is  to 


THE  DEFEAT  285 

kill  the  malaria.  The  only  way  to  cure 
the  cursed  liquor  traffic  is  to  cast  it  out 
of  our  civilization  by  a  universal,  ever- 
lasting prohibition  of  the  manufacture, 
importation  and  sale  of  intoxicating  li- 
quor. 

Rev.  Howard  Crosby,  of  New  York,  in 
advocating  high  license  as  a  means  of  re- 
ducing the  number  of  saloons,  said  in  an 
address:  "Suppose  a  tiger  were  to  get 
loose  in  the  city,  would  you  not  confine 
him  to  a  few  blocks  rather  than  let  him 
roam  the  city  at  large  ?"  Some  one  in  the 
audience  answered  aloud :  "No  Doctor,  we 
would  kill  the  tiger." 

How  does  regulation  regulate?  Take 
the  city  of  Louisville,  Ky.,  where  I  resid- 
ed a  number  of  years,  and  where  I  ob- 
served the  practical  working  of  the  license 
system.  Go  there  any  Monday  morning 
and  you  will  see  from  twenty  to  forty 
men  and  women  in  the  cage  next  to  the 
Police  Court  room.  A  marshal  stands  at 
the  door  of  the  cage  and  takes  them  out 
one  at  a  time.  You  will  hear  the  judge 
say:  "ten  dollars  and  cost,"  which  means 
thirty  days  in  the  workhouse.  Forty  days 
pass  and  here  is  the  same  man  in  the  Po- 
lice Court:  thirty  days  to  serve  his  time, 


286         POPULAR  LECTURES. 

ten  days  to  get  a  little  money  and  then  an- 
other drunk.  Some  do  not  know  how  many 
times  they  have  been  before  the  court.  I 
was  there  one  day  when  an  Irishman  was 
arraigned.  The  Judge  said:  "Pat,  how 
many  times  have  you  been  before  this 
court?" 

"Faith,  and  your  books  will  tell  ye,"  re- 
plied the  Irishman.  Judge  Price,  the  po- 
lice judge  at  the  time,  said  to  me:  "There 
are  a  number  of  men,  and  several  women 
I  know  in  this  city,  who  pass  through  the 
courtroom  on  their  way  to  the  workhouse 
so  regularly,  I  can  guess  within  a  few 
days  of  the  time  they  will  appear."  They 
pass  like  buckets  at  a  fire,  going  up  full 
and  returning  empty. 

There  is  an  asylum  in  this  country 
where,  I  am  told,  they  test  a  man's  in- 
sanity in  this  way.  They  have  a  trough 
which  holds  one  hundred  gallons  of  wa- 
ter. Above  is  an  open  tap  through  which 
the  water  pours  constantly,  and  of  course 
the  trough  keeps  on  running  over.  The 
patient  is  brought  to  the  trough,  given  a 
bucket  and  told  to  dip  out  the  water.  If 
he  dips  all  day  and  has  not  mind  enough 
to  turn  off  the  tap,  he  is  considered  a  very 
serious  case.  If  this  test  were  put  to  our 


THE  DEFEAT  287 

license  lawmakers,  I  fear  they  would  have 
to  go  to  the  incurable  ward.  They  have 
for  many  years  been  picking  up  drunk- 
ards from  the  gutters  and  opening  taps 
for  them  to  keep  on  pouring  into  the 
streets.  Under  this  system  the  saloon 
keepers  are  playing  ten-pins.  You  know 
in  playing  ten-pins  there  is  a  long  alley, 
at  one  end  of  which  stand  the  pins,  while 
at  the  other  stands  the  player  with  a  ball 
in  his  hand.  He  rolls  the  ball  down  the 
alley  and  knocks  down  the  pins.  Some 
one  sets  them  up,  and  to  that  some  one, 
who  is  often  a  boy,  the  player  will  toss  a 
dime  and  say :  "set  them  up  quick."  Does 
he  let  them  stand?  No!  he  rolls  the  balJ 
down  the  alley  and  down  go  the  pins. 
The  saloon  keeper  has  the  ball  of  law  in 
his  hands.  No  matter  whether  a  high  or 
low  license  ball,  he  paid  the  price  for  the 
use  of  the  ball.  When  temperance  work- 
ers set  up  drunkards  and  they  get  a  little 
money  in  their  pockets  away  goes  the  ball 
and  they  are  down  again.  When  a  church 
revival  picks  up  a  few  drunkards  the  sa- 
loon keeper  will  say:  "Here's  a  dollar  to 
help  in  your  meeting."  Then  in  his  mind 
he  says:  "Set  up  the  drunkards  who  are 
out  of  employment  and  money,  get  them 


288          POPULAR  LECTURES. 

positions,  and  when  they  can  earn  money 
again,  again  I'll  bowl  them  down."  Un- 
der the  license  system  the  saloon  is  play- 
ing ten-pins  with  temperance  associa- 
tions, ten-pins  with  the  church  and  ten- 
pins with  society.  I  have  faith  to  believe 
the  time  is  drawing  near  when  the  balls 
will  be  confiscated  and  the  pins  can  stand 
when  we  do  set  them  up. 

I  know  many  have  not  this  faith  be- 
cause they  believe  prohibitory  laws  are 
failures.  They  base  their  belief  on  the 
violation  of  the  law.  By  that  rule  every- 
thing is  a  failure.  Married  life  is  a  fail- 
ure; its  laws  are  grossly  violated.  Home 
life  is  a  failure ;  there  are  many  miserable 
homes.  The  school  is  a  failure;  many  a 
father  has  put  thousands  of  dollars  into 
the  education  of  his  son  and  found  it 
wasted  in  riotous  living.  The  church  is  a 
failure;  many  of  its  members  are  Chris- 
tians only  in  name  and  not  a  few  are 
hypocrites.  But  we  know  by  the  loyal,  lov- 
ing husbands  and  wives  of  every  commu- 
nity that  married  life  is  not  a  failure.  We 
know  by  the  happy  homes  about  us,  with 
sweetest  of  household  ties  binding  the 
family  circle,  that  home  life  is  not  a  fail- 
ure. We  know  by  the  education  that  has 


THE  DEFEAT  289 

refined  our  civilization,  that  the  school  is 
not  a  failure.  We  know  by  the  redeemed 
of  earth  and  saved  in  heaven  the  church 
is  not  a  failure,  and  we  are  convinced  by 
the  organized  opposition  to  prohibitory 
laws  by  distillers,  brewers,  saloon  keep- 
ers, gamblers  and  harlots  that  prohibition 
is  not  a  failure. 

If  prohibition  is  a  failure  in  Kansas  as 
license  advocates  charge,  then  governors, 
ex-governors,  attorney  generals,  jailers, 
mayors  and  judges  of  Kansas  are  falsi- 
fiers. If  prohibition  is  a  failure  in  Kan- 
sas why  has  the  state  grown  to  be  the 
richest  per  capita  in  the  Union,  why  are 
so  many  jails  empty,  so  many  counties 
without  a  pauper  and  why,  according  to 
the  brewers'  year  book  of  1910,  was  the 
consumption  of  liquor  in  Kansas  one  dol- 
lar and  sixty  cent  per  capita  and  in  a 
neighbor  license  state  twenty-two  dollars 
per  capita? 

Along  with  the  absurd  statement  that 
prohibition  is  a  failure,  comes  the  warn- 
ing of  the  president  of  the  Model  License 
League  to  the  business  men  of  the  coun- 
try, that  unless  the  tide  of  prohibition  is 
arrested  it  will  "kill  our  cities."  "Blessed 
are  the  dead  that  die  in  the  Lord." 


290         POPULAR  LECTURES. 

In  a  local  option  contest  a  prominent 
business  man  said  to  me:  "I  do  not  use 
liquor  but  I  am  in  doubt  about  how  I 
should  vote  on  the  question."  When  I 
asked ;  "What's  your  trouble  ?"  he  answer- 
ed: "We  have  six  saloons  in  this  little 
city  and  the  license  fee  is  one  thousand 
dollars ;  how  are  we  to  run  the  city  with- 
out the  six  thousand  dollars?"  When  I 
informed  him  that  the  six  saloons  took 
from  the  people  eighty  thousand  dollars 
a  year,  he  agreed  it  was  a  reasonable  es- 
timate. I  said:  "Don't  you  know  those 
who  spend  their  money  for  drink,  if  they 
did  not  spend  it  over  the  saloon  bars, 
would  spend  it  over  the  counters  of  mer- 
chants who  sell  clothing,  food,  fuel  and 
furniture?"  If  you  merchants  could  take 
in  eighty  thousand  dollars,  couldn't  you 
pay  out  six  thousand  and  not  get  hurt?  If 
you  can't  see  that  you  are  no  better  busi- 
ness man  than  was  Horace  Greeley  a  farm- 
er. He  purchased  a  pig  for  one  dollar, 
kept  it  two  years,  fed  it  forty  dollars 
worth  of  corn  and  sold  it  for  nine  dollars. 
He  said:  "I  lost  money  on  the  corn  but 
made  money  on  the  hog."  So,  many  bus- 
iness men  see  the  revenue  from  the  li- 
cense fee  but  can't  see  the  cost. 


THE  DEFEAT  291 

Suppose  on  one  side  of  a  street  the 
business  houses  are  all  bad,  in  that  they 
consume  money  and  give  worse  than  noth- 
ing in  return ;  and  on  the  other  side  they 
are  all  good,  in  that  they  give  an  honest 
equivalent  for  the  money  they  receive; 
can't  you  see  if  the  bad  side  is  closed,  the 
money  that  went  to  the  bad  side  goes  to 
the  good,  and  can  you  not  see  only  good 
can  come  of  such  a  change? 

There  are  three  things  prohibition  of 
the  saloon  does  that  are  illustrated  by  the 
story  told  of  an  Irishman  who  said :  "I  did 
three  good  things  today." 

"What  did  you  do,  Pat?" 

"I  saw  a  woman  crying  in  front  of  a 
cathedral.  She  had  a  baby  in  her  arms, 
and  I  said :  'Madam,  what  are  you  crying 
about?' 

"She  said:  'I  had  two  dollars  in  me 
handkerchief  and  came  to  have  me  baby 
christened  but  I  lost  the  money/ 

"I  said :  'Don't  cry,  Madam,  here  is  a  ten 
dollar  bill ;  go  get  the  baby  christened  and 
bring  me  the  change/  She  went,  and  soon 
after  returned  and  handed  ma-  eight  sil- 
ver dollars." 

"Well,"  said  the  friend,  "I  don't  see  any 
three  good  things  in  that" 


292          POPULAR  LECTURES. 

"Ye  don't!  Didn't  I  dry  the  woman's 
tears,  didn't  I  save  the  baby's  soul,  and 
didn't  I  get  rid  of  a  ten  dollar  counterfeit 
bill  and  get  eight  good  silver  dollars  in 
return?" 

That  is  what  prohibition  of  the  saloon 
does  for  a  community.  It  dries  woman's 
tears,  saves  human  souls,  gets  rid  of  a 
counterfeit  business  and  puts  good  bus- 
iness instead. 

Is  it  a  counterfeit  business  ?  It  has  been 
well  said,  "Go  into  the  butcher  stall  and 
you  get  meat  for  money,  into  the  shoe 
store  and  you  get  shoes  for  money,  but  go 
into  the  saloon  and  the  bargain  is  all  on 
one  side.  It's  bar-gain  on  one  side  and 
bar-loss  on  the  other;  ill-gotten  gains  on 
one  side,  mis-spent  wages  on  the  other,  a 
mess  of  pottage  on  one  side  and  the  birth- 
right of  some  mother's  boy  on  the  other." 

A  great  wail  is  going  up  from  the  ad- 
vocates of  the  liquor  traffic  that  state- 
wide prohibition  means  the  destruction  of 
immense  vested  interests  and  dire  results 
will  follow. 

"This  our  craft  is  in  danger,"  has  ever 
been  the  cry  against  reforms  or  changes 
in  civilization  since  the  "Shrine  Makers  of 
Ephesus." 


THE  DEFEAT  293 

When  slavery  was  abolished  it  was 
said:  "This  means  ruin  to  the  South! 
Such  a  confiscation  of  property,  with  ev- 
ery slave  set  free  to  beg  at  the  white 
man's  gate,  crushes  every  vestige  of 
hope,  and  five  hundred  years  will  not 
bring  relief."  Only  fifty  years  have  pass- 
ed and  the  South  is  richer  than  ever  in 
her  history. 

Justice  Grier  of  the  Supreme  Court 
said:  "If  loss  of  revenue  should  accrue 
to  the  United  States  from  a  diminished 
consumption  of  ardent  spirits,  she  will  be 
the  gainer  a  thousandfold  in  health, 
wealth  and  happiness  of  the  people." 

If  this  is  true,  then  this  question  is  not 
only  a  great  moral  question  but  also  a  tre- 
mendous economic  problem. 

If  production  should  be  for  use  and  not 
for  abuse,  the  existence  of  breweries  and 
distilleries  are  without  excuse. 

If  one  should  be  rewarded  on  the  basis 
of  service,  the  saloon  keeper  has  no  claim 
for  even  tolerance,  much  less  reward. 

If  labor  is  the  basis  of  value,  men  who 
live  by  selling  liquor  to  their  fellowmen 
are  leaches  on  the  body  politic,  and  Ish- 
maels  in  the  commercial  world. 

The  claim  that  the  liquor  business  is  a 


294          POPULAR  LECTURES. 

benefit  to  a  community  or  to  the  country 
is  in  harmony  with  the  assertion  that  war 
is  a  "biological  necessity"  and  a  "stimu- 
lating source  of  development." 

General  Sherman  said:  "War  is  hell." 
Certainly  the  one  now  raging  between  the 
leading  nations  of  the  old  world  is  a  hell 
of  carnage.  And  yet  intemperance  has 
destroyed  more  lives  than  all  the  wars  of 
the  world  since  time  began.  It  has  added 
to  the  death  of  the  body  the  eternal  death 
of  the  soul  and  then  the  sum  of  its  ravages 
is  not  complete  until  is  added  more  broken 
hearts,  more  blasted  hopes,  desolate 
homes,  more  misery  and  shame  than  from 
any  source  of  evil  in  the  world.  If  what 
Sherman  said  of  war  is  true,  and  the 
liquor  curse  is  worse  than  war,  how  can 
this  government  hope  to  escape  punish- 
ment for  raising  revenue  from  a  business 
so  abominable  and  wicked? 

A  heathen  emperor  when  appealed  to 
for  a  tax  on  opium  as  a  source  of  revenue 
said :  "I  will  not  consent  to  raise  the  rev- 
enue of  my  country  upon  the  vices  of  its 
people."  Yet  this  Christian  republic, 
claiming  the  noblest  civilization  of  the 
earth,  is  found  turning  the  dogs  of  appe- 
tite and  avarice  loose  upon  the  home  life 


THE  DEFEAT  295 

of  the  republic  that  gold  may  clink  in 
its  treasury.  The  politician's  excuse  for 
this  compromise  with  earth's  greatest  de- 
stroyer is,  it  can  never  be  prohibited  and 
therefore  regulation  and  revenue  is  the 
best  policy. 

I  can  well  remember  when  the  same 
was  said  of  slavery.  With  billions  of  dol- 
lars invested  in  slaves,  with  a  united 
South  behind  it  and  the  North  divided,  it 
could  never  be  abolished.  At  that  time 
the  prospect  for  the  overthrow  of  slavery 
was  far  less  than  the  prospect  of  national 
prohibition  today.  I  own  I  was  among 
those  who  said  "slavery  cannot  be  de- 
stroyed." Now  I  am  one  of  the  recon- 
structed. I'm  like  the  pig  I  used  to  read 
of,  "When  I  lived  I  lived  in  clover,  and 
when  I  died  I  died  all  over." 

During  the  Civil  War  Union  soldiers  ar- 
rested several  of  my  neighbors  and  took 
them  to  a  northern  prison.  My  southern 
blood  was  aroused.  I  said:  "Let  a  Yan- 
kee soldier  come  to  take  me  and  he  will 
never  take  another  Kentuckian."  Then 
my  mother  was  alarmed.  She  knew  how 
brave  her  boy  was.  A  few  days  later  I 
met  a  squad  of  Yankee  cavalry  on  the 
road  near  our  home.  They  said  "Halt!" 


296         POPULAR  LECTURES. 

and  I  halted.  They  said  "Surrender!"  I 
did  so,  and  mother  did  not  hear  of  any 
blood  being  shed. 

Again  a  half-drunk  Union  soldier  rode 
up  to  our  gate  and  said:  "Who  lives 
here?"  When  I  answered,  he  asked:  "Can 
your  mother  get  supper  for  fourteen  sol- 
diers in  thirty  minutes?"  "No,  sir,  she 
cannot,"  I  replied.  Drawing  a  pistol,  the 
mouth  of  which  looked  like  a  cannon's 
mouth  to  me,  he  said:  "Maybe  you  have 
changed  your  mind."  I  had,  and  that 
supper  was  ready  with  several  minutes  to 
spare.  We  can,  and  we  will  stop  the  li- 
quor business.  I  am  amazed,  however,  to 
find  so  many  intelligent  men  of  the  North 
advocating  the  same  policy  on  this  liquor 
problem  the  South  adopted  on  the  slavery 
question,  which  cost  her  so  severely.  I 
find  the  same  effect  revenue  in  slaves  had 
upon  the  consciences  of  the  tax-payers  of 
the  South,  high-license  revenue  from  sa- 
loons is  having  upon  the  consciences  of 
tax-payers  in  the  North. 

In  the  early  days  of  slavery,  when 
wealth  in  the  institution  was  very  limited, 
the  conscience  of  the  'South  was  against 
slavery.  Old  Virginia,  when  a  colony,  ap- 
pealed to  King  George  to  remove  the 


THE  DEFEAT  297 

threatening  danger  from  her  borders.  It 
was  the  voice  of  a  General  Lee  of  Virginia 
that  was  lifted  against  slavery  in  the 
House  of  Burgesses.  But  with  the  pass- 
ing of  time  slaves  grew  in  value,  until  a 
slave  in  the  South  reached  about  the  price 
of  a  saloon  license  now  in  the  North. 
Then  the  conscience  of  the  South  quieted 
and  slavery  was  justified  by  press,  poli- 
tics and  pulpit.  There  is  a  remarkable 
analogy  between  the  effect  of  a  thousand 
dollar  slave  upon  the  conscience  of  South 
Carolina  and  a  thousand  dollar  saloon 
upon  the  conscience  of  Massachusetts. 
The  South  paid  the  penalty  of  her  mistak- 
en policy;  the  North  will  reap  its  reward 
in  retribution,  if  it  persists  in  making 
the  price  of  a  saloon  in  the  North  the 
same  as  the  price  of  a  slave  in  the  South. 
When  the  value  of  a  world  is  profitless 
compared  with  the  worth  of  a  soul  then 
even  if  every  saloon  were  a  Klondyke  of 
gold  this  republic  could  not  afford  to  le- 
galize the  liquor  business  for  revenue. 

I  believe  my  northern  friends  will  per- 
mit me  to  press  home  a  little  further  the 
lesson  of  southern  slavery.  The  phase  I 
would  impress  is  that  any  question  that 
has  a  great  moral  principle  involved  is 


298         POPULAR  LECTURES. 

never  settled  until  it  is  settled  right.  We 
tried  to  regulate  sla.very  but  it  wouldn't 
regulate.  First  it  was  decided  that  the 
importation  of  slaves  should  cease  in 
twenty  years.  Did  that  settle  it?  Next 
came  the  Missouri  compromise,  "Thus  far 
shalt  thou  go  and  no  farther."  Politi- 
cians said:  "Now  it's  settled."  But  a  fa- 
natic in  Boston  name  Garrison  said:  "It 
is  not  settled."  Daniel  Webster,  as  intel- 
lectual as  some  of  our  high  license  advo- 
cates of  today  said  to  Lloyd  Garrison: 
"Stop  the  agitation  of  this  question  or  you 
will  bring  trouble  on  the  country;  the 
compromise  is  made  and  the  question  is 
settled."  Lloyd  Garrison  replied :  "I  don't 
care  what  compromise  you've  made;  you 
may  pull  down  my  office,  pitch  my  type 
into  the  sea,  and  hound  me  through  the 
streets-  of  Boston,  but  you  will  never  set- 
tle the  slavery  question  until  you  settle 
it  right." 

It  kept  breaking  out  despite  all  legisla- 
tive restrictions.  At  last  Columbia  with 
one  hand  on  her  head,  and  the  other  on 
her  heart,  began  to  reel  on  her  throne, 
and  Abraham  Lincoln  seized  his  pen  and 
signed  the  proclamation,  "Universal 
Emancipation."  Then  the  whole  world 


THE  DEFEAT  299 

said :  "It's  forever  settled."  So  the  liquor 
question  will  be  settled  as  was  the  slavery 
question,  by  the  universal,  everlasting 
abolition  of  the  manufacture,  sale  and  im- 
portation of  intoxicating  liquor  in  this 
country. 

High  license  is  another  Missouri  Com- 
promise. If  you  have  the  drink  you'll 
have  the  drunkenness.  If  you  have  the 
cause  you  will  have  the  effect.  If  you 
have  the  positive  you  will  have  the  super- 
lative :  Positive  drink,  comparative  drink- 
ing, superlative  drunkenness.  You  may 
try  high-tax  and  low-tax  but  all  the  time 
you  will  have  sin-tax  and  more  sin  than 
tax. 

You  do  not  change  the  nature  of  the 
drink  by  the  price  of  a  license,  the  kind  of 
a  place  in  which  it  is  sold  or  the  charac- 
ter of  the  man  who  sells  it.  Put  a  pig 
in  a  parlor ;  feed  him  on  the  best  the  mar- 
ket affords,  give  him  a  feather  bed  in 
which  to  sleep,  keep  him  there  till  he's 
grown  and  he'll  be  a  hog.  You  don't 
change  the  nature  of  the  pig  by  the  ele- 
gant surroundings;  you  may  change  the 
condition  of  the  parlor. 

There  is  but  one  solution  of  the  liquor 
problem  and  that  is  a  nation-wide  pro- 


300         POPULAR  LECTURES. 

hibitory  law  and  behind  the  law  a  politi- 
cal power  in  sympathy  with  the  law  and 
pledged  to  its  enforcement. 

Many  admit  the  principle  is  correct  but 
insist  we  should  wait  until  public  senti- 
ment is  powerful  enough  to  enforce  the 
law.  If  grand  ideas  had  waited  for  pub- 
lic sentiment  Moses  would  never  have 
given  the  commandments  to  the  world.  If 
grand  ideas  had  waited  for  public  senti- 
ment, we  would  still  be  back  in  the  realm 
of  the  dark  ages,  instead  of  in  the  light  of 
our  present  civilization;  back  in  the  dim 
twilight  of  the  tallow-dip  instead  of  the 
brightness  of  the  electric  light ;  back  with 
the  ox  team  instead  of  the  speed  of  the 
steam  engine,  automobile  and  aeroplane; 
and  on  the  temperance  question  back  to 
where  a  liquor  dealer  could  advertise  his 
business  on  gravestones.  On  a  tomb  in 
England  are  these  words: 

"Here  lies  below  in  hope  of  Zion, 
The  landlord  of  the  Golden  Lion, 
His  -son  keeps  up  the  business  still, 
Obedient  to  his  country's  will." 

Years  ago  a  friend  said  to  me:  "I  ad- 
mire your  zeal,  but  I  wonder  at  your  faith 
when  you  are  in  such  a  miserable  minori- 


THE  DEFEAT  301 

ty."  My  reply  was:  "Are  minorities  al- 
ways wrong  or  hopeless  ?  How  would  you 
have  enjoyed  being  with  the  majority  at 
the  time  of  the  flood  ?  It  seems  to  me  you 
would  have  been  safer  with  Noah  in  the 
ark." 

As  to  license  and  prohibition,  that  has 
always  been  the  question  since  man  was 
created.  It  was  the  question  in  the  Gar- 
den of  Eden  when  the  devil  stood  for  li- 
cense, "go  eat,"  and  God  stood  for  pro- 
hibition, "thou  shalt  not."  That  is  the 
question  today  and  I  am  quite  sure  God 
and  the  devil  stand  now  as  then,  and 
while  the  Adams  are  divided,  the  Eves 
are  nearly  all  on  one  side. 

Another  said :  "A'ter  all  the  work  done 
for  temperance  the  people  drink  as  much 
or  more  than  ever."  My  answer  is :  how 
much  more  would  they  drink  if  we  had 
not  done  what  has  been  done? 

Yonder  on  the  ocean  a  vessel  springs  a 
leak  and  soon  the  water  stands  thirty 
inches  deep  in  the  hold.  The  captain  says : 
"To  the  pumps!"  and  the  sailors  leap  to 
their  places.  At  the  end  of  one  hour  the 
captain  measures  and  says :  "Thirty  inch- 
es ;  you  are  holding  it  down."  Hour  after 
hour  the  pumping  goes  on,  with  changing 


302         POPULAR  LECTURES. 

hands  at  the  pumps,  and  hour  after  hour 
the  captain  says:  "You  are  doing  well; 
she  can't  go  down  at  thirty  inches.  Hold 
it  there  and  we'll  make  the  harbor." 
Twenty  hours  and  the  captain  shouts: 
"Thirty  inches;  and  land  is  in  sight. 
Pump  on,  my  boys,  you'll  save  the  ship." 
Suppose  one  of  our  croakers  who  says, 
"Prohibition  won't  prohibit,"  had  been  on 
board.  He  would  have  said:  "Don't  you 
see  you  are  doing  no  good;  there's  just  as 
much  water  as  when  you  began."  What 
would  have  become  of  the  ship? 

At  the  close  of  the  Civil  War  intemper- 
ance was  pouring  in  upon  the  Ship  of 
State.  Men  returned  from  war  enthrall- 
ed in  chains  worse  than  African  slavery, 
for  rum  slavery  means  ruin  to  body  and 
soul.  Men,  women  and  children  ran  to  the 
pumps,  and  thank  God,  state  after  state 
is  going  dry.  Soon  we'll  see  the  land  of 
promise,  and  the  Ship  of  State  will  be 
saved  from  a  leak  as  dangerous  as  ever 
sprung  in  a  vessel,  and  from  as  cruel  a 
crew  of  buccaneers  as  ever  scuttled  a 
ship. 

When  I  began  the  work  as  a  "Good 
Templar"  forty  years  ago,  Kentucky  was 
soaked  in  rum.  Bourbon  county,  where  I 


THE  DEFEAT  303 

was  reared,  had  twenty-three  distilleries, 
and  a  dead  wall  lifted  itself  against  my 
hopes  of  ever  seeing  the  sky  clear  of  dis- 
tillery smoke  above  old  Bourbon  county, 
a  name  on  more  barrels  and  bottles,  on 
more  bar-room  windows,  and  on  the  mem- 
ories of  more  drunkards  in  ruin  than  any 
other  county  in  the  world.  Yet  I  have 
lived  to  see  the  last  distillery  fire  go  out, 
and  Bourbon  county  dry.  While  I  had 
faith  in  the  ultimate  triumph  of  the  Cause 
I  never  dreamt  it  would  come  to  Bourbon 
county  in  my  lifetime. 

When  I  began  saloons  were  at  almost 
every  crossroads  village,  and  the  bottle 
on  sideboards  was  the  rule  in  thousands 
of  leading  homes.  Time  and  again  my  life 
was  threatened.  On  one  occasion  twelve 
armed  men  guarded  me  from  a  mob,  and 
once  my  wife  placed  herself  between  my 
body  and  a  desperate  mountaineer.  Those 
were  perilous  times  for  an  advocate  of 
temperance  in  my  native  state.  Now  out 
of  one  hundred  and  twenty  counties,  one 
hundred  and  seven  are  dry.  In  Georgia 
the  licensed  saloon  is  gone ;  in  North  Car- 
olina the  saloon  is  gone;  in  West  Vir- 
ginia, Old  Virginia,  Mississippi  and  Ten- 
nessee the  saloon  is  gone,  while  Oklaho- 
ma was  born  sober. 


304         POPULAR  LECTURES. 

"That  which  made  Milwaukee  famous 

Doesn't  foam  in  Tennessee; 
The  Sunday  lid  in  old  Missouri 

Was  Governor  Folk's  decree. 
Brewers,  distillers  and  their  cronies 

Well  may  sigh; 
The  saloon  is  panic-stricken, 

And  the  South's  going  dry. 

"Soon  the  hill-side  by  the  rill-side 

Of  Kentucky  will  be  still; 
Men  will  take  their  toddies 

From  the  ripples  of  the  rill; 
Boys  will  grow  up  sober, 

Mothers  cease  to  cry; 
Glory  hallelujah! 

The  South's  going  dry." 

Already  seventeen  states  are  dry,  and 
there  are  many  arid  spots  in  the  wet 
states.  While  I  cannot  hope  to  live  to  see 
the  final  triumph,  I  have  faith  to  believe 
my  children  and  my  children's  children 
will  live  in  a  saloonless  land,  a  land  re- 
deemed from  a  curse  that  has  soaked  its 
social  life  in  more  blood  and  tears  than 
all  other  sources  of  sorrow ;  a  land  where 
liberty  will  no  longer  be  shorn  of  its 
locks  of  strength  by  licensed  Delilahs; 


THE  DEFEAT  305 

where  manhood  will  no  more  be  stripped 
of  its  possibilities  by  the  claws  of  the  de- 
mon drink;  where  fore-doomed  genera- 
ations  will  not  reach  the  dawning  of  life's 
morning,  to  be  bound  like  Mazeppa  to  the 
wild,  mad  steed  of  passion  and  borne 
down 'the  blood  lines  of  inheritance  to  the 
awful  abuse  of  drunkenness. 

To  this  end  I  appeal  to  every  minister 
of  the  gospel,  stir  the  consciences  of 
your  hearers  on  this  question.  I  appeal  to 
the  press,  that  potent  power  for  the  en- 
lightenment of  the  people. 

"Pulpit  and  press  with  tongue  and  pen, 
Set  to  new  music  this  message  to  men : 
Let  the  great  work  of  destruction  begin, 
And  rid  our  loved  land  of  this  shelter  to 

sin. 

As  before  the  sun's  brightness,  the  dark- 
ness must  fly, 
So  by  power  of  the  ballot  the  rum  curse 

must  die, 
Then  cover  the  earth  as  the  wide  waves 

the  sea, 

With  the  sound  of  the  axe  at  the  root  of 
the  tree!" 


VIII 

IF  I  COULD  LIVE  LIFE  OVER. 

Now  and  then  I  hear  an  old  man  or  an 
old  woman  say,  "Even  if  I  could  I  would 
not  live  life  over."  Well,  I  own  I  would, 
provided  I  could  begin  the  journey  with 
the  knowledge  I  now  have  of  what  it 
means  to  live. 

While  mistakes  have  been  many  there 
are  some  things  I  would  not  change.  I 
would  be  brought  up  in  the  country  as  I 
was.  I  would  play  over  the  same  blue- 
grass  carpet,  along  the  same  turnpike 
aisle,  swing  on  the  branches  of  the  same 
old  trees  and  listen  to  the  concert  chorus 
of  the  same  song  birds. 

Indeed  I  sympathize  with  the  boy  who 
exchanges  the  music  of  birds,  melody  of 
streams,  lowing  of  herds,  driving  of 
teams,  diamond  dew  on  bending  blade, 
morning  sun  and  evening  s'hade,  with  all 
other  sweet  associations  of  country  life 
for  a  lodging  room  in  a  city,  where  church 
doors  and  home  doors  are  closed  against 
him  in  the  evening  hours  of  the  week,  and 
all  evil  places  wide  open  for  his  ruin.  It 
307 


308         POPULAR  LECTURES. 

has  been  well  said:  "The  street  fair  of 
evil  associations  in  our  large  cities  begins 
with  the  night  shadows  and  grows  with 
the  darkness."  I  dare  say  if  I  could  draw 
aside  the  veil  that  will  shut  in  the  night 
scenes  of  this  city,  the  revelation  would 
make  some  godly  fathers  tremble  for 
their  boys,  and  pious  mothers  long  to 
gather  their  children  about  them  when 
the  sun  goes  down,  as  moor  birds  gather 
their  helpless  young  when  hawks  are 
screaming  in  the  sky. 

All  hail  to  the  Young  Men's  Christian 
Association,  with  its  open  doors  for  young 
men  in  the  evening  hours !  All  hail  to  its 
gymnasium,  its  swimming  pool,  basket- 
ball iand  other  sports  that  develop 
strength  and  furnish  entertainment! 
Away  with  the  idea  that  all  the  pleasures 
of  the  world  belong  to  the  devil. 

A  distinguished  divine  was  brought  up 
in  New  England  by  a  staid  old  aunt,  who 
never  let  him  go  anywhere  except  to 
church,  Sunday  school  and  prayer  meet- 
ing. When  quite  a  lad  she  let  him  go  to 
New  York  City  to  visit  a  cousin.  That 
Kmsin  took  him  to  see  Barnum's  circus. 
It  was  his  first  circus,  and  the  wild  ani- 
mals, the  bareback  riding,  trapeze  per- 


IF  I  COULD  LIVE  309 

formance,  clowns  and  chariot  races  be- 
wildered the  country  boy.  Next  morning 
he  wrote  his  aunt,  saying:  "Dear  Aunt, 
if  you'll  go  to  one  circus  you'll  never  go  to 
another  prayer  meeting  as  long  as  you 
live."  But  he  did  go  to  prayer  meeting 
and  became  a  grand  good  man.  There 
are  many  innocent  springs  of  pleasure, 
where  youth  can  drink  and  not  be  harmed. 
It  may  surprise  some  for  me  to  say,  if 
I  could  live  life  over  I  would  be  brought 
up  in  the  same  old  state  of  Kentucky. 
"With  all  her  faults  I  love  her  still,"  but 
not  her  stills.  It  has  been  my  privilege  to 
visit  every  state  in  the  union  and  1  find  all 
the  good  is  not  in  any  one  state,  nor  all 
the  bad.  While  Kentucky  has  had  her 
night  riders,  Missouri  has  had  her  bood- 
lers,  California  her  grafters,  Illinois  her 
anarchists,  Pennsylvania  her  machine 
politics,  New  York  her  Tammany  tiger, 
and  Washington  City  her  blizzards  on  in- 
auguration days.  God  doesn't  grow  all  the 
daisies  in  one  field  nor  confine  thorns  to 
one  thicket. 

It's  been  my  lot  this  land  to  roam, 
O'er  every  state  twixt  ocean's  foam, 
But  still  my  heart  clings  to  its  home, 
Kentucky. 


310         POPULAR  LECTURES. 

I've  traveled  the  prairies  of  the  west, 
I've  seen  each  section  at  its  best, 
There's  nothing  like  my  native  nest, 
Kentucky. 

No  matter  through  what  state  I  pass, 
No  matter  how  the  people  class, 
To  me  there's  only  one  Blue  Grass, 
Kentucky. 

When  my  wanderings  here  are  o'er, 
And  my  spirit  seeks  the  golden  shore, 
Then  keep  my  dust  for  evermore, 
Kentucky. 

Not  only  would  I  be  brought  up  in  Ken- 
tucky and  in  the  country,  but  I  would  ga 
to  the  same  Yankee  schoolmaster,  have 
the  same  sweethearts  and  marry  the  same 
girl,  provided  she  would  consent  to  make 
another  journey  with  the  same  compan- 
ion. By  the  way,  we  were  married  in 
Bourbon  County,  Kentucky,  when  she  was 
nineteen  and  I  twenty.  About  four  years 
ago  we  celebrated  our  golden  wedding, 
and  the  morning  after  the  celebration, 

She  put  on  "her  old  grey  bonnet, 

With  the  blue  ribbon  on  it." 

We  didn't  "hitch  Dobbin  to  the  Shay" 


IF  I  COULD  LIVE  311 

But  along  the  interurban 
We  rode  down  to  Bourbon, 
Where  we  started  for  our  golden  wedding 
day. 

If  I  could  live  life  over  surely  I  could 
ask  no  better  age  than  the  one  in  which  I 
have  lived.  We  no  longer  toil  over  a 
mountain,  but  glide  through  it  on  ribbons 
of  steel;  telegraphy  dives  the  deep  and 
brings  us  the  news  of  the  old  world  ev- 
ery morning  before  breakfast;  we  talk 
with  tongues  of  lightning  through  tele- 
phones and  send  messages  on  ether  waves 
over  the  sea ;  we  ride  horse-cycles  that  run, 
never  walk  and  live  without  eating;  we 
travel  in  carriages  drawn  by  electric 
steeds  that  never  tire;  the  signal  service 
gives  us  a  geography  of  the  weather,  so 
the  farmer  may  know  whether  or  not  to 
prepare  to  plow,  and  the  Sunday  school 
whether  to  arrange  or  to  postpone  its  pic- 
nic tomorrow;  airships  mount  the  heav- 
ens, steamships  plough  the  ocean's  bosom, 
submarine  torpedo  boats  undermine  the 
deep  with  missiles  of  death,  while  photog- 
raphy turns  one  inside  out,  and  doctors  no 
longer  guess  at  the  location  of  a  bullet. 
All  these  things  have  come  to  pas's  within 


312         POPULAR  LECTURES. 

my  life-time.    What  may  the  young  before 
me  expect  in  the  next  fifty  years  ?" 

Recently  I  read  an  imaginary  letter, 
supposed  to  have  been  written  by  a  Welles- 
ley  College  girl.  It  was  dated  one  hundred 
years  in  the  future.  She  wrote: 

"Father  gave  me  a  new  airship  a  few 
weeks  ago.  I  leave  my  home  in  Baltimore 
every  morning  after  breakfast  and  reach 
Wellesley  in  time  for  classes.  We  have  only 
thirty  minutes  in  school  in  the  morning 
and  fifteen  in  the  afternoon.  Our  teach- 
ers are  in  telepathic  touch  with  all  knowl- 
edge and  we  get  it  in  condensed  form.  A 
few  days  ago,  just  after  lunch  at  noon 
I  took  a  spin  up  into  Canada ;  the  machine 
got  a  little  out  of  fix,  so  I  jumped  on  a 
gyroscope  and  returned  in  time  for  dinner 
at  six. 

'Yesterday  I  sailed  over  to  New  York 
City  and  took  dinner  at  the  Waldorf-As- 
toria; had  two  capsules  for  dinner  and 
they  were  delicious.  I  read  how  the  peo- 
ple used  to  sit  around  tables  and  eat  all 
kinds  of  things.  It  must  have  been  fun- 
ny to  see  their  mouths  all  going  at  one 
time.  Then  they  had  stomach  trouble — 
indigestion  they  called  it.  Now  we  have 
everything  necessary  for  the  human  sys- 


IF  I  COULD  LIVE  313 

tern  put  up  in  capsules ;  we  get  up  a  thou- 
sand feet  above  the  earth  where  the  air  is 
pure,  so  we  ought  to  live  to  be  two  hun- 
dred years  old. 

"Last  week  my  classmate  and  I  took  a 
flying  trip  to  see  the  Panama  Canal,  and 
while  there  we  decided  to  take  in  the  Ex- 
position at  San  Francisco  next  day.  There 
we  saw  many  antiquated  machines  called 
automobiles ;  they  used  to  run  around  the 
streets  in  rubber  stockings,  honking 
horns  to  warn  the  poor,  then  turning  tur- 
tle they  killed  or  maimed  the  rich.  In  one 
department  we  saw  an  animal  with  long 
tail,  and  a  mane  on  its  neck.  They  called 
it  a  horse  and  told  us  that  years  ago  horses 
were  harnessed  and  driven  about  the 
streets,  while  the  fast  ones  were  raced  for 
money." 

That  young  woman  may  be  all  right 
about  her  capsule  dinners  and  condensed 
instruction,  but  one  hundred  years  from 
now,  when  on  her  way  from  the  west  to 
Wellesley  if  she  will  stop  in  Lexington,Ky., 
she  will  see  a  horse  sale  in  progress; 
horses  selling  from  five  hundred  to  ten 
thousand  dollars  that  will  trot  or  pace  a 
mile  in  less  than  two  minutes,  while  slow 
ones  will  be  hitched  to  dead  wagons,  used 


314         POPULAR  LECTURES. 

to  gather  up  those  Who  have  fallen  from 
airships  and  gyroscopes.  It  may  be  that 
one  hundred  years  in  the  future  airships 
will  be  seen  soaring  over  the  cities,  deliv- 
ering packages  in  parachutes  at  the  back 
doors  of  residences,  but  the  day  will  never 
dawn  when  there  will  be  an  airship,  gyro- 
scope, or  an  automobile  that  will  supplant 
the  fleet-footed,  sleek-coated,  handsome 
Kentucky  horse. 

Now  I  come  to  the  more  practical,  for  I 
do  not  bring  you  this  talk,  challenging 
your  criticism  or  inviting  your  praise  of 
it  as  a  literary  production,  but  with  the 
purpose  of  helping  some  one  live  as  I 
would  wish  to  live  if  I  had  my  life  to  live 
over. 

First,  to  the  boys  before  me.  If  I  had 
life  to  live  over  one  of  my  first  purposes 
would  be  to  seek  my  calling  in  life.  Do 
you  know  half  the  failures  of  life  come 
from  misfits  of  occupation?  There  are 
lawyers  vstarving  for  want  of  clients,  doc- 
tors with  patients  under  monuments,  and 
preachers  talking  to  empty  pews,  who 
might  have  been  successful  in  factories  or 
furrows.  Cowper  was  a  failure  as  a  law- 
yer, he  was  a  success  as  a  poet ;  Goldsmith 
was  a  bungling  surgeon,  he  was  a  power 


IF  I  COULD  LIVE  315 

with  his  pen ;  Horace  Greely  was  a  success 
in  the  Tribune  office,  he  was  a  failure  as  a 
farmer  and  a  slow  candidate  for  president. 
When  U.  S.  Grant  was  a  very  young 
man  his  father  sent  him  to  sell  a  horse  to 
a  buyer  and  instructed  him  to  ask  one 
hundred  dollars,  but  if  he  could  not  get 
that  amount  to  take  eighty-five.  The  buyer 
looked  the  horse  over  and  said:  "Young 
man,  what  is  your  price?"  Young  Grant 
replied:  "Father  told  me  to  ask  you  one 
hundred  dollars,  but  if  you  would  not  give 
that  to  take  eighty-five."  It  is  needless  to 
say  the  calling  of  U.  S.  Grant  was  nof 
horse  trading.  This  same  young  man  af- 
terwards tried  the  grocery  business  and 
bought  potatoes  far  and  wide  to  corner 
the  market,  but  the  price  went  down,  the 
potatoes  rotted  in  Grant's  bins  and  his 
grocery  effort  was  on  a  par  with  his  horse 
trading.  He  then  tried  the  ice  market  but 
that  became  watered  stock  on  his  hands 
and  again  he  was  a  failure.  Later  on  in 
life  'mid  roar  of  cannon  and  rattle  of 
musketry  the  misfit  found  his  element. 
Here  he  was  so  sure  of  his  calling  he 
made  his  motto,  "I'll  fight  it  out  on  this 
line  if  it  takes  all  summer,"  and  to  the 
general,  who  could  not  drive  a  horse 


316         POPULAR  LECTURES. 

trade,  or  corner  the  potato  market,  or  deal 
in  ice,  one  of  the  greatest  generals  the 
world  ever  knew  surrendered  his  sword, 
and  from  the  highest  military  position 
Grant  was  called  to  be  President  of  the 
United  States. 

If  it  is  true  that  "ever  since  creation 
shot  its  first  shuttle  through  chaos  design 
has  marked  the  course  of  every  golden 
thread,"  then  every  human  being  is  de- 
signed to  fill  a  certain  place  in  life. 
There  are  young  women  teaching  school, 
getting  to  be  old  maids,  who  should  be  the 
wives  of  good  husbands,  and  there  are 
some  wives  who  ought  to  be  old  maid 
"schoolmarms." 

We  have  born  architects,  born  orators, 
born  bookkeepers,  born  musicians,  born 
poets,  born  preachers,  born  teachers,  born 
surgeons,  born  bankers,  born  blacksmiths, 
born  merchants,  born  farmers. 

Two  farmers  live  side  by  side;  one 
doesn't  seem  to  work  hard,  yet  everything 
is  neatness  from  one  end  of  the  farm  to 
the  other;  his  neighbor  works  hard,  yet 
the  cattle  are  in  his  corn,  the  fences  are 
broken,  gates  off  the  hinges  and  every- 
thing seems  out  of  order.  That  man  was 
not  made  to  be  a  farmer.  He  should  rent 


IF  I  COULD  LIVE  317 

out,  or  sell  out,  and  go  to  the  legislature, 
or  find  some  other  place  he  can  fill. 

Matthew  Arnold  said :  "Better  be  a  Na- 
poleon of  boot-blacks,  or  an  Alexander  of 
chimney-sweeps,  than  an  attorney,  who, 
like  necessity,  knows  no  law."  There  are 
born  shoemakers  cobbling  in  Congress, 
while  statesmen  are  pegging  away  on  a 
shoe-last  because  their  brains  have  not 
been  capitalized  by  education  and  oppor- 
tunity. There  are  born  preachers  at  work 
in  machine  shops,  and  born  mechanics  rat- 
tling around  in  pulpits  like  a  mustard  seed 
in  an  empty  gourd;  born  surgeons  are 
carving  beef  in  butcher  stalls,  while  here 
and  there  butchers  are  operating  for  ap- 
pendicitis. 

•God  planted  the  hardy  pine  on  the  hills 
of  New  England,  and  the  magnolia  down 
in  the  sunny  South-land.  Let  some  hor- 
ticulturist compel  the  magnolia  to  climb 
the  cold  hills  of  New  England,  and  the 
northern  tree  to  come  down  and  take  its 
place  in  the  "land  of  cotton,  cinnamon  seed 
and  sandy  bottom,"  and  everything  in  both 
will  protest  against  the  mistake. 

Lowell  said:  "Every  baby  boy  is  born 
with  a  calling."  With  some  this  calling  is 
very  definite.  It  was  definite  with  George 


318         POPULAR  LECTURES. 

Stevenson  when  in  childhood  he  made  en- 
gines of  mud  with  sticks  for  smoke-stacks. 
It  was  definite  with  Thomas  A.  Edison, 
who,  instead  of  selling  newspapers,  went 
to  experimenting  with  acids,  and  charged 
a  steel  stirrup  that  lifted  him  into  the  elec- 
tric saddle  of  the  world.  With  others  it 
is  very  indefinite.  Patrick  Henry  failed 
at  everything  he  undertook  until  he  began 
talking,  when  he  soon  became  the  golden 
mouthed  orator  of  his  age.  Peter  Cooper 
failed  until  he  took  to  making  glue,  then 
his  business  "stuck"  to  everybody  and  he 
made  a  fortune  out  of  which  he  built  Coop- 
er Union  for  the  education  of  poor  boys. 

I  have  a  grandson  whose  calling  was  in- 
definite. He  was  named  for  his  grandfa- 
ther, to  whom  fishing  is  a  fad.  During  my 
rest  season  I  go  fishing  almost  every  day. 
While  I  make  an  exception  of  Sunday  I 
can  appreciate  the  minister  who  was  a 
great  fisherman.  On  his  way  to  an  appoint- 
ment Sunday  morning  he  came  upon  a  lad 
fishing  in  a  wayside  stream.  Halting  he 
said:  "My  boy,  this  is  the  Sabbath  day 
and  the  good  Book  says  you  should  re- 
member to  keep  it  holy."  Just  then  a  fish 
seized  the  boy's  bait  and  drew  the  float 
under,  when  the  good  minister  excitedly 


IF  I  COULD  LIVE  319 

said :  "Pull,  pull.  Ah !  that's  a  good  one. 
I'll  try  that  place  myself  some  other  day." 

Fishing  is  my  favorite  sport.  My  grand- 
son was  a  baseball  fiend  and  a  football 
player.  He  was  hurt  in  a  football  game 
and  I  wrote  him,  warning  him  against  his 
recklessness,  and  to  the  admonition  I  ad- 
ded: "Twenty-five  boys  have  been  killed 
already  this  season  playing  football;  it's 
a  brutal  game  anyway." 

He  replied:  "Dear  Grandfather,  I  am 
sorry  so  many  boys  have  'been  killed  play- 
ing football,  but  I  read  recently  that  last 
summer  two  hundred  and  fifty  men  were 
drowned  while  out  fishing;  would  it  not 
be  well  for  you  to  keep  off  Lake  Ellerslie? 
You  say  football  is  a  "brutal  game ;  I  sub- 
mit to  you,  Grandpa,  that  the  man  who 
takes  an  innocent  worm  or  a  minnow, 
strings  it  on  a  steel  hook,  and  sinking  it 
into  the  water,  jerks  the  gills  out  of  an 
innocent  fish,  is  more  cruel  than  the  boy 
who  kicks  another  around  for  exercise.  I 
need  a  pair  of  baseball  shoes,  number  six 
and  a  half;  send  them  by  express."  He 
got  the  shoes,  and  I  decided  he  was  called 
to  be  a  lawyer. 

Young  man,  if  you  get  to  be  a  preacher 
and  cannot  put  force  into  your  sermon, 


320         POPULAR  LECTURES. 

the  world  doesn't  want  to  hear  you  preach, 
but  if  you  are  a  good  cobbler  it  will  wear 
your  shoes,  if  a  good  baker  it  will  eat  your 
bread,  or  if  a  good  barber  it  will  let  you 
put  your  razor  to  its  throat.  Remember 
in  making  your  choice, 

"Honor  and  fame  from  no  condition  rise, 
Act  well  your  part ;  there  the  honor  lies." 

If  I  could  live  life  over,  I  would  not  be 
content  with  a  common  school  education. 
In  my  youth  circumstances  lifted  a  dead 
wall  against  my  hopes,  but  if  given  an- 
other chance  I  would  somehow  press  my 
way  to  where  higher  education  scatters  its 
trophies  at  the  feet  of  youth,  for  while  it 
is  true  some  of  the  most  successful  men 
of  our  country  graduated  from  the  high 
school  of  "hard  knocks"  and  universities 
of  adversity,  yet  the  humblest  toil  is  more 
easily  accomplished  and  better  done  where 
college  education  guides. 

To  college  education,  however,  I  would 
add  the  education  which  comes  from  rub- 
bing against  the  world.  Some  one  has 
said :  "For  every  ounce  of  book  knowledge 
one  needs  a  half  dozen  ounces  of  common 
sense  with  which  to  apply  it."  Douglas 
Jerrold  said:  "I  have  a  friend  who  can 
speak  fluently  a  dozen  different  languages 


IF  I  COULD  LIVE  321 

but  has  not  a  practical  idea  to  express  in 
any  one  of  them." 

An  old  woman  suffering  from  rheuma- 
tism was  asked  by  a  friend :  "Did  you  ever 
try  electricity?" 

She  answered:  "Yes,  I  was  struck  by 
lightning  once  but  it  didn't  do  me  any 
good." 

In  this  many  sided  age  one  needs  to  ed- 
ucate muscle,  nerves,  heart  and  conscience 
as  well  as  brain.  That  man  who  is  all 
brain  and  no  heart,  goes  through  the  world 
with  his  intellect  shining  above  his  bosom 
like  an  electric  light  over  a  graveyard. 

Young  people,  do  you  know  you  live  in 
a  testing  world,  a  world  in  which  all  buds 
and  blossoms  are  tested?  The  bud  that 
stands  the  test  of  wind  and  frost  goes  on 
to  flower  and  fruitage ;  the  bud  that  can't 
stand  the  test  goes  with  the  dust  to  be 
trampled  under  foot.  Every  cannon  made 
by  the  government  is  tested;  the  cannon 
that  can  stand  the  test  goes  into  battle- 
ship or  land  fort,  the  cannon  that  can't 
stand  the  test  goes  into  the  junk  pile. 

Yonder  in  Virginia  a  few  years  ago, 
there  was  a  young  man  who  had  every- 
thing an  indulgent  father  could  give  him, 
but  in  school  his  character  could  not  stand 


322          POPULAR  LECTURES. 

the  test,  and  he  exchanged  his  books  for 
wine  and  cards.  He  married  a  beautiful 
young  woman,  shot  her  to  death  in  his  au- 
tomobile and  died  himself  in  the  electric 
chair,  leaving  his  old  father  in  a  desolate 
home  with  harrowing  memories  tearing 
his  heart;  while  over  the  life  of  an  inno- 
cent babe  he  hung  a  cloud  as  dark  as  was 
ever  woven  out  of  the  world's  misfortune, 
and  sent  another  life  to  wander  in  painted 
shame  outside  life's  eden  of  purity,  the 
barb  of  conscious  guilt  to  be  driven  deeper 
and  deeper  into  her  soul  by  the  scorn  of  a 
pitiless  world.  All  because  young  Beatty 
could  not  stand  the  test! 

Harry  Thaw  had  everything  wealth  and 
refinement  could  bring  into  a  young  life, 
but  he  sacrificed  all  upon  unhallowed  al- 
tars, and  with  the  brand  of  Cain  upon  hia 
brow,  he  was  cast  into  a  madman's  cell. 
He  could  not  stand  the  test. 

Lord  Byron  was  Britain's  brilliant  bard. 
He  could  have  lived  in  England's  glory 
and  then  slept  with  England's  buried 
greatness  in  Westminster  Abbey,  if  he  had 
stood  the  test;  but  at  the  age  of  thirty- 
seven,  when  he  should  have  been  on  an 
upward  flight  to  greater  fame,  he  drew 
the  "strings  of  his  discordant  harp"  about 


IF  I  COULD  LIVE  323 

him  and  over  them  sent  the  bitter  wail : 

"My  days  are  in  the  yellow  leaf; 

The  flowers  and  fruits  of  love  are  gone ; 
The  worm,  the  canker,  and  the  grief 

Are  mine  alone!" 

Yonder  in  a  cabin  a  babe  was  born. 
When  eleven  years  of  age  he  helped  his 
mother  clear  out  a  patch  and  raise  a  gar- 
den. Later  on  he  lay  in  front  of  a  wood 
fire,  studying  lessons  for  the  morrow.  La- 
ter in  life  he  went  to  college,  with  only  a 
few  cents  in  his  pocket.  He  went  to 
church  and  there  gave  part  of  his  little  all 
in  a  collection  for  missionary  work.  The 
next  Saturday  he  earned  a  dollar  with  a 
jack-plane ;  at  the  end  of  his  college  term 
he  had  paid  his  way  and  had  seven  dollars 
left.  At  twenty-eight  this  young  man 
was  in  the  senate  of  his  state,  at  thirty-six 
he  was  in  Congress,  and  twenty-seven 
years  from  the  time  James  A.  Garfield 
rang  the  bell  of  Hiram  College  for  his 
board  he  went  into  the  White  House  as 
President  of  the  United  States.  He  could 
stand  the  test.  Boys,  can  you  stand  the 
test? 

During  the  Spanish  American  war  there 
was  a  regiment  called  the  "Rough  Riders." 


324         POPULAR  LECTURES. 

It  was  made  up  of  picked  young  men  from 
different  states  of  the  Union.  It  was 
this  regiment  that  made  the  famous  charge 
up  San  Juan  Hill.  At  the  close  of  the  war, 
the  regiment  was  mustered  out  of  ser- 
vice. The  Colonel,  giving  his  farewell  ad- 
dress, said :  "You  have  made  an  honorable 
record  in  war,  now  go  back  to  your  homes 
and  make  honorable  record  in  peace." 

Sixteen  years  of  that  record  is  made. 
The  Colonel  has  been  President  of  the 
United  States  for  seven  years  of  that  time. 
General  Leonard  Wood  has  gone  to  the 
front  of  the  army,  and  others  of  the  regi- 
ment have  become  successful  professional 
and  business  men ;  but  some  have  gone  to 
jails  and  penitentiaries,  one  died  not  long 
since  in  the  streets  of  New  York  City  and 
was  buried  in  a  pauper's  grave;  some  are 
fugitives  from  justice. 

What  is  true  of  that  regiment,  is  in 
some  measure  true  of  every  body  of  young 
men  and  boys  I  meet.  In  my  presence  are 
boys  who  will  be  leaders  of  thought  and 
action  twenty  years  from  now  in  whatever 
community  they  dwell.  There  is  a  boy 
before  me  who  will  be  a  successful  mer- 
chant, there's  one  who  will  be  a  banker, 
another  will  be  a  lawyer,  others  will  lead 


IF  I  COULD  LIVE  325 

in  other  lines.  But  alas!  in  my  presence 
now,  looking  me  in  the  face  this  minute, 
there  may  be  a  boy,  or  boys,  who  wMl  stain 
with  blood  the  stony  path  to  despair. 

Do  you  say  that  no  such  ignominious 
possibility  hangs  over  any  boy  in  this  au- 
dience? I  tell  you  it  is  not  always  the 
first,  but  sometimes  the  fairest  born.  I 
know  a  man  who  in  his  youth  drove  his 
father's  fine  horses,  romped  and  rested  on 
the  richest  blue-grass  lawn,  ate  from  spot- 
less linen  and  lived  in  luxury,  who  now 
eats  from  the  bare  tables  of  low  saloons, 
and  is  often  given  shelter  by  an  old  colored 
"mammy,"  who  was  once  his  father's 
slave. 

I  have  in  mind  a  schoolmate,  whose  fa- 
ther lived  in  a  fine  country  home  two  miles 
from  the  schoolhouse.  The  influence  of 
my  schoolmate's  mother  was  pure  as  the 
diamond  dew  he  brushed  from  the  bending 
grass  in  barefoot  days.  But  he  left  the 
country  home  and  the  last  time  I  saw  him 
he  was  a  vagabond,  begging  bread  from 
negro  cabjn  doors.  Ah !  mother,  you  can't 
tell  which  boy. 

In  a  large  city  a  few  years  ago  a  man 
stood  at  the  side  door  of  a  saloon  at  two 
o'clock  in  the  morning.  His  clothes  were 


326         POPULAR  LECTURES. 

worn  and  the  matted  hair  hung  about  his 
face.  He  waited,  hoping  some  one  would 
come  along  and  give  him  the  price  of  a 
drink.  Two  young  men,  one  of  them  a 
reporter  on  a  leading  daily,  came  down  the 
street.  As  they  neared  the  poor  fellow, 
one  said  to  the  other:  "Did  you  ever  see 
such  an  appeal  for  a  drink?  Here,  hobo, 
take  this  dime  and  buy  you  one." 

Seizing  his  hand  his  friend  said:  "No, 
let's  do  the  job  like  good  Samaritans. 
Come  in,  tramp,  and  have  a  drink  with 
us." 

The  three  entered  the  saloon,  the  glass- 
es were  filled  and  the  tramp  took  his  and 
draining  it,  said:  "Young  men,  I'm  very 
thirsty,  may  I  have  another?" 

"Yes,  help  yourself,"  was  the  reply,  and 
the  tramp  took  the  second  drink.  Then 
lifting  his  hat  he  said : 

"Young  men,  you  call  me  a  hobo,  but  I 
see  in  you  a  picture  of  my  lost  manhood. 
Once  I  had  a  face  as  fair  as  yours,  and 
wore  as  good  clothes  as  you  have  now.  I 
had  a  home  where  love  lit  the  flame  on  the 
altar,  but  I  put  out  the  fire  and  to-night 
I'm  a  wanderer  without  a  home.  I  had 
a  wife  as  beautiful  as  an  artist's  dream, 
but  I  took  the  pearl  of  her  love,  dropped  it 


IF  I  COULD  LIVE  327 

in  the  wine  glass,  Cleopatra-like  I  saw  it 
dissolve  and  I  quaffed  it  down.  I  had  a 
sweet  child  I  fondly  loved,  and  still  love, 
though  I  have  not  seen  her  for  twelve 
years ;  a  young  woman  now  in  her  grand- 
father's home,  she  is  deprived  of  the  her- 
itage of  a  father's  good  name.  Young 
men,  I  once  had  aspirations  and  ambitions 
that  soared  as  high  as  the  morning  star, 
but  I  clipped  their  wings,  I  strangled  them 
and  they  died.  Call  me  a  tramp,  do  you? 
I'm  a  preacher  without  a  charge,  a  lawyer 
without  a  brief,  a  husband  without  a  wife, 
a  father  without  a  child,  a  man  without  a 
friend.  I  thank  you  for  the  drinks.  Go 
to  your  homes  and  on  soft  beds  may  you 
sleep  well ;  I'll  go  out  and  sleep  on  yonder 
bench  in  the  night  wind.  A  few  more 
drinks,  a  few  more  drunkard's  dreams, 
and  I'll  go  out  into  the  moonless,  starless 
night  of  a  hopeless  forever." 

Oh!  how  I  would  like  to  help  some  boy 
in  this  audience  stand  on  his  two  feet  and 
with  clear  brain,  manly  muscle,  and  moral 
courage  fight  and  win  the  battle  of  life. 
How  it  would  rejoice  my  soul  if  I  could, 
with  earnest  appeal,  throw  about  some 
mother's  boy  an  armor  of  celestial  atmos- 
phere against  which  the  arrows  of  evil 


328          POPULAR  LECTURES. 

would  beat  in  vain,  and  fall  harmless  at 
his  feet. 

Hear  me,  boys;  never  was  there  a  day 
when  character  counted  for  so  much  as 
now;  never  a  day  when  a  young  man, 
equipped  with  education  and  stability  of 
character,  filled  with  energy  and  ambi- 
tion, was  in  such  demand  as  he  is  today; 
while  on  the  other  hand,  never  was  there 
a  day  when  a  young  man  with  bad  habits 
was  in  so  little  demand  as  now.  The  in- 
dustrial world  is  closing  its  doors  against 
young  men  who  are  not  sober,  industrious 
and  competent.  Even  a  saloon-keeper  ad- 
vertised thus:  "Wanted — A  man  to  tend 
bar,  who  does  not  drink  intoxicating  liq- 
uors." How  would  this  read :  "Wanted — 
A  young  man  to  sell  shoes,  who  goes  bare- 
footed." 

Young  women,  just  here  I  have  a  ques- 
tion for  you.  If  the  railroad  company 
does  not  want  the  drinking  man,  if  the 
merchant  discriminates  against  him,  and 
even  the  saloon-keeper  does  not  want  him 
for  bar-tender,  do  you  want  him  for  a 
husband?  Can  you  afford  to  wrap  up 
your  hopes  of  happiness  in  him  and  to  him 
swear  away  your  young  life  and  love? 

Some  young  woman  may  say:     "If  I 


IF  I  COULD  LIVE  329 

taboo  the  drinking  man,  I  may  be  an  old 
maid."  Then  be  an  old  maid,  get  some 
"bloom  of  youth,"  paint  up  and  love  your- 
self. John  B.  Gough  said:  "You  better 
be  laughed  at  for  not  being  married,  than 
never  to  laugh  any  more  because  you  are 
married." 

If  I  could  live  life  over  there  are  some 
things  I  would  not  do.  I  would  not  stop 
smoking  as  I  did  thirty-five  years  ago,  be- 
cause I  never  would  begin  and  therefore 
would  not  need  to  stop.  I  am  not  a  fanat- 
ic on  the  question,  but  I  believe  every  fa- 
ther in  my  presence,  who  uses  tobacco,  will 
be  glad  to  have  me  say  that  which  I  will 
now  say  to  the  boys  who  are  dulling  their 
brains,  poisoning  their  blood  and  weaken- 
ing their  hearts  by  the  use  of  cigarettes. 

Boys,  I  believe  a  cigar  made  me  tell  my 
first  falsehood.  When  I  was  fifteen  years 
of  age  I  felt  I  must  smoke  if  I  ever  ex- 
pected to  be  a  man.  Father  smoked,  our 
pastor  smoked,  and  so  did  almost  every 
man  in  our  neighborhood.  My  mother  op- 
posed the  habit,  but  I  thought  mother  did 
not  know  what  it  took  to  make  a  man. 

I  heard  her  make  an  engagement  to 
spend  a  whole  day  ten  miles  from  home 
the  following  week,  and  that  day  I  set 


330         POPULAR  LECTURES. 

apart  for  learning  to  smoke  cigars.  I  laid 
in  some  fine  ones,  six  for  five  cents,  and 
when  mother  went  out  the  gate  on  her 
visit,  I  started  for  the  barn.  In  a  shed 
back  of  the  barn  I  took  out  my  cigars,  de- 
termined to  learn  that  day  if  it  required 
the  six  cigars  for  my  graduation.  The 
first  cgiar  was  lighted  and  with  every  puff 
I  felt  the  manhood  coming;  but  in  about 
five  minutes  I  felt  the  manhood  going. 
Just  then  my  uncle  called :  "George,  where 
are  you?"  When  I  answered  he  said: 
"Come  here  and  hold  this  colt  while  I 
knock  out  a  blind  tooth." 

Horsemen  before  me  know  some  colts 
have  blind  teeth  and  to  save  the  eyes  these 
must  be  removed.  I  staggered  to  the  colt, 
held  the  halter  rein  and  when  the  tooth 
was  removed  my  uncle,  looking  at  me, 
said :  "What's  the  matter  with  you  ?  You 
are  pale  as  death." 

"Nothing,  only  it  always  did  make  me 
sick  to  see  a  blind  tooth  knocked  out  of  a 
horse's  mouth,"  I  replied. 

My  uncle  said:  "You  better  lie  down 
on  the  grass  until  it  passes  off,"  and  I  did. 

But  I  kept  on  after  that  until  I  learned 
to  smoke  like  a  man.  When  years  had 
passed  and  I  became  editor  of  a  paper  it 


IF  I  COULD  LIVE  331 

seemed  to  me  I  could  write  better  edito- 
rials with  the  smoke  curling  about  mj" 
face. 

One  morning  I  finished  my  breakfast 
before  Mrs.  Bain  had  half  finished  hers. 
Lighting  my  cigar  I  stood  by  the  fire  chat- 
ting and  smoking  until  the  stub  was  all 
that  remained.  Then,  as  was  my  custom, 
I  walked  up  to  kiss  her  good-bye  when  she 
said :  "Good-bye.  But,  I  would  like  to  ask 
you  a  question.  How  would  you  like  to 
have  me  finish  my  breakfast  before  you 
are  half  through  yours,  light  a  cigar, 
smoke  it  to  the  stub,  and  with  tobacco  on 
my  lips  and  breath  offer  to  kiss  you  good' 
morning?" 

I  said:  "You  don't  'have  to  kiss  me," 
and  with  this  I  left  for  my  work.  On  the 
way  her  question  seemed  to  be  waiting  my 
answer,  and  I  gave  it  in  a  resolve  that  she 
should  never  again  have  cause  to  repeat 
that  question,  and  with  my  resolve  went 
the  cigar. 

About  this  time  a  co-worker  joined  me 
in  the  same  resolution,  which  helped  me 
to  keep  mine.  After  tea  that  evening 
Mrs.  Bain  said :  "I  did  not  know  you  were 
so  sensitive,  or  I  should  not  have  said  what 
I  did."  I  did  not  tell  her  then  of  my  prom- 


332         POPULAR  LECTURES. 

ise,  lest  I  should  fail  to  keep  it.  Thirty- 
five  years  have  passed  and  not  a  single  ci- 
gar have  I  had  between  my  lips  since  that 
morning. 

Boys,  take  one  five-cent  cigar  after  each 
meal,  add  up  the  nickels  for  one  year,  put 
the  money  at  interest,  next  year,  and  every 
year  do  the  same,  compounding  the  inter- 
est, and  in  thirty-five  years  you  will  have 
thirty-five  hundred  dollars — the  price  of  a 
home  for  your  old  age. 

I  do  not  hope  to  convert  old  smokers, 
but  if  I  can  persuade  one  young  man  in 
this  audience  to  throw  away  the  cigarette, 
never  to  smoke  one  again,  then  I  will  have 
honored  this  hour's  service. 

If  I  could  live  life  over  I  would  take 
the  same  total-abstinence  pledge  I  took 
fifty  years  ago  and  have  kept  inviolate  to 
this  day.  I  -would  take  it,  not  only  be- 
cause of  its  personal  benefit  to  me,  but  be- 
cause of  what  it  has  led  me  to  do  for  oth- 
ers. 

It  is  said  reformers  never  expect  to  see 
the  bread  they  cast  upon  the  waters;  in- 
ventors may,  but  not  reformers.  Yet  I 
have  lived  to  see  my  bread  come  back  "but- 
tered" in  my  old  age. 

I  have  lived  to  see  thousands  of  men 


IF  I  COULD  LIVE  333 

and  women  to  whom  I  gave  the  pledge  in 
their  youth,  wearing  it  still  as  a  garland 
about  their  brows,  and  their  children,  by 
precept  and  example  of  parents,  keep  step 
with  the  onward  march  of  the  temperance 
army. 

I  have  lived  to  see  more  than  one  hun- 
dred counties  of  Kentucky,  in  which  I  es- 
tablished Good  Templar  Lodges,  when  bot- 
tles were  on  sideboards  in  the  homes,  and 
barrooms  in  almost  every  crossroad  vil- 
lage, now  in  the  dry  column. 

I  have  lived  to  see  seventeen  states  under 
prohibition,  fifty  millions  of  people  of  the 
United  States  living  under  prohibitory 
laws,  the  Congress  of  the  United  States 
giving  a  majority  vote  for  submitting  na- 
tional prohibition  to  the  people,  and  the 
great  empire  of  Russia  going  dry  in  a  day. 

Sweet  is  the  "buttered  bread"  that  ia 
coming  to  me  after  these  many  years  since 
I  cast  my  bread  upon  the  waters,  when 
days  were  dark,  discouragements  many 
and  faith  weak.  I  am  waiting  now  for  an- 
other slice  of  this  "buttered  bread"  about 
the  size  of  old  Kentucky  dry. 

If  I  could  live  life  over  I  would  put  a 
better  bit  to  my  tongue,  and  a  better  bridle 
on  my  temper.  An  Englishman  said: 


3S4         POPULAR  LECTURES. 

"My  wife  has  a  temper;  if  she  could  get 
rid  of  it  I  would  not  exchange  her  for  any 
woman  in  the  world." 

Two  men  meet  and  have  a  misunder- 
standing ;  one  flies  into  a  passion,  shoots  or 
stabs,  while  the  other  stands  placid  and 
seltf-contained,  preserving  his  dignity. 
The  world  calls  the  first  a  brave  man  and 
the  latter  a  coward ;  but  Solomon  declared 
the  man  who  rules  himself  to  be  "greater 
than  he  that  taketh  a  city." 

Oh !  the  tragedies  that  lie  in  the  wake  of 
the  tempest  of  temper.  On  the  dueling 
field  such  men  as  Alexander  Hamilton 
went  down  to  death  for  want  of  self-con- 
trol. Andrew  Jackson  killed  Dickerson; 
Benton  of  Missouri  killed  Lucas;  General 
Marmaduke  killed  General  Walker.  Pet- 
tus  and  Biddle,  one  a  Congressman,  the 
other  a  paymaster  in  the  army,  had  a  war 
of  words,  a  challenge  followed ;  one  being 
near-sighted  selected  five  feet  as  the  dis- 
tance for  the  duel,  and  there  educated 
men,  with  pistols  almost  touching,  stood, 
fired  and  both  were  killed. 

Senator  Carmack  of  Tennessee,  criti- 
cised Colonel  Cooper  as  a  machine  politi- 
cian. Cooper  said :  "Put  my  name  in  your 
paper  again,  and  I'll  kill  you."  Young 


IF  I  COULD  LIVE  335 

Cooper  felt  in  his  rage  that  he  must  settle 
the  trouble.  Did  he  settle  it?  The  bullet 
that  went  through  the  heart  of  Carmack 
went  through  the  heart  of  his  wife,  threw 
a  shadow  over  the  life  of  his  child,  and 
draped  Tennessee  in  mourning.  Did  he 
settle  it?  He  started  a  tempest  that  will 
howl  through  his  life  while  memory  lasts 
and  echo  through  his  soul  to  all  eternity. 
Oh!  that  men  would  realize  that  to  walk 
honorably  and  deal  justly  insures  in  time 
vindication  from  all  calumny. 

Abraham  Lincoln  was  called  the  "Illi- 
nois baboon"  by  a  leading  journal,  but  Mr. 
Lincoln  placidly  read  the  charge,  and  told 
a  joke  as  a  safety  valve  for  whatever  an- 
ger he  may  have  felt.  One  hundred  years 
go  by  and  the  President  leaves  Washing- 
ton and  goes  on  a  long  journey  to  stand 
at  a  cabin  door  in  Kentucky,  there  to  pay 
tribute  to  a  man  who  "never  lost  his  bal- 
ance or  tore  a  passion  to  tatters." 

I  stood  in  front  of  the  great  Krupp  gun 
at  the  World's  Fair,  and  as  the  soldier  in 
charge  told  me  that  one  discharge  cost  one 
thousand  dollars,  and  it  could  send  a  shell 
sixteen  miles  and  pierce  iron  plated  ships, 
its  lips  seemed  noaded  with  death  and  it 
spoke  of  war  and  bloodshed  and  hate. 


336         POPULAR  LECTURES. 

A  little  later  I  entered  the  Hall  of  Fine 
Arts  and  looked  upon  that  impressive 
picture  entitled,  "Breaking  Home  Ties." 
The  lad  is  about  to  go  out  from  the  roof 
that  has  sheltered  him  from  babyhood,  to 
be  his  own  guide  in  the  big  wide  world. 
His  mother  holds  his  hand  as  she  looks 
love  into  his  eyes,  and  gives  him  her  warn- 
ings and  blessing;  the  father,  with  his 
boy's  valise  in  his  hand,  has  'turned  away 
with  a  lump  in  his  throat,  while  even  the 
dog  seems  to  be  joining  in  the  loving  fare- 
well. 

Turning  away  from  that  picture,  the 
thought  came :  Ah !  that  means  more  than 
Krupp  guns.  It  means  the  coming  of  a 
day  when  love  shall  rule  and  war  shall 
cease,  when  reason  and  righteousness  shall 
be  the  arbitrators  for  differences  between 
nations,  when  owls  and  bats  will  nest  in 
the  portholes  of  battleships,  and  each  na- 
tion will  vie  with  the  other  in  warring 
against  the  kingdoms  of  want  and  wicked- 
ness. 

When  a  man  requested  Bishop  Mclntyre 
to  preach  his  wife's  funeral  sermon,  and 
told  him  of  her  many  'beautiful  traits, 
Bishop  Mslntyre  said:  "Brother,  did  you 
ever  tell  her  all  these  sweet  things  before 
ehediedr 


IF  I  COULD  LIVE  337 

Just  here  Sam  Jones  would  say :  "Hus- 
bands, go  home  and  kiss  your  wives.  Tell 
them  they  are  the  dearest,  sweetest  things 
on  the  earth ;  you  may  have  to  stretch  the 
truth  a  little,  but  say  it  anyway." 

A  few  years  ago,  just  before  the  Christ- 
mas holidays,  I  wrote  my  daughter,  say- 
ing: "I  wish  you  would  find  out  from 
your  mother  what  she  would  like  for  a 
Christmas  gift.  However,  don't  tell  her 
I  wrote  you  to  do  this.  Also  suggest  some- 
thing for  the  grandchildren  that  I  may 
bring  each  some  little  remembrance  that 
will  please  them."  I  closed  by  saying: 

"The  sands  of  my  life  are  growing  less 
and  less, 

Soon  I'll  reach  the  end  of  my  years, 
Then  you'll  lay  me  away  with  tenderness 

And  pay  me  the  tribute  of  tears. 

"Don't  carve  on  my  tomb  any  word  of 
fame, 

Nor  a  wheel  with  its  missing  spokes, 
Simply  let  the  marble  tell  my  name, 

Then  add,  'He  was  good  to  his  folks/  " 

Boys  and  girls,  don't  speak  back  to 
mother.  You  love  her  and  don't  mean  to 
offend,  but  it  hurts  her.  She  was  patient 


338         POPULAR  LECTURES. 

with  you  in  your  infancy ;  be  patient  with 
her  in  her  old  age.  From  her  birth  she 
has  been  your  loyal,  loving  slave.  She 
will  go  away  and  leave  you  after  a  little 
while,  and  oh !  how  you  will  miss  her  when 
she's  gone.  Deal  gently  with  her  now; 
speak  kindly  to  her  and  when  she's  gone 
memories  of  your  love  and  kindness  to 
mother  will  come  to  you  like  sweet  per- 
fume from  wooded  blossoms. 

Young  lady  graduate  of  high  school  or 
college,  do  you  realize  what  your  father 
has  done  for  you,  and  the  sacrifices  he  has 
anade  that  you  might  have  what  he  has 
never  had — a  diploma?  Go,  put  your  fair 
tender  cheek  against  the  weather-beaten 
face  of  your  father,  print  with  rosy  lips  a 
kiss  of  gratitude  upon  his  furrowed  brow, 
and  tell  him  you  appreciate  all  he  has  done 
for  you. 

I  have  been  talking  to  you  an  hour  about 
what  I  would  do  if  I  could  live  life  over. 
If  I  had  life  to  live  over  would  I  do  any 
better  than  I  have  done?  If  I  am  no 
better  now,  than  I  was  five  years  ago,  if  I 
am  to  be  no  better  five  years  hence  than  I 
am  now,  then  I  would  do  no  better  if  I  had 
another  trial. 

However,  I  cannot  live  life  over.    The 


IF  I  COULD  LIVE  339 

sand  in  the  hour-glass  is  running  low  and 
when  gone  can  never  be  replaced,  and  I 
am  not  much  struck  on  old  age.  It  is  said 
to  have  its  compensations,  in  that  the 
"aches  and  asthmas  of  old  age  are  no 
worse  than  the  measles,  mumps,  whoop- 
ing-coughs  and  appendicitis  pains  of 
youth."  Righteous  old  age  should  be  bet- 
ter than  youth.  The  ocean  of  time  with 
its  breakers  and  perils  face  the  young, 
while  for  the  righteous  old  the  storms  are 
past,  and  they  are 

"Waiting  to  enter  the  haven  wide, 
See  His  face  and  be  satisfied." 

I  cannot  help  these  grey  hairs  or  the 
wrinkles  on  my  brow,  but  I  can  keep  my 
heart  young,  and  I  do.  I  enjoy  the  com- 
pany of  old  people,  but  delight  more  in 
associating  with  the  young. 

Dr.  A.  A.  Willetts  lectured  on  "Sun- 
shine" sixty  years  ago.  In  his  ninetieth 
year  he  was  still  lecturing ;  had  he  lectured 
on  shadows  he  would  doubtless  have  died 
many  years  before,  and  never  been  known 
as  the  "Apostle  of  Sunshine." 

Solomon  said:  "A  merry  heart  doeth 
good  like  a  medicine."  Never  lock  the 
door  of  your  heart  against  the  sunshine  of 


340         POPULAR  LECTURES. 

cheerfulness,  and  remember  it  is  not  the 
exclusive  blessing  of  youth  but  blooms  in 
the  heart  of  any  age.  With  some  it  seems 
to  be  an  inheritance.  It  kisses  some  ba- 
bies in  the  cradle,  and  the  radiance  of  that 
kiss  lingers  through  three-score  years  and 
ten ;  while  others  are  born  cross,  live  cross 
and  -die  cross.  A  babe  of  this  latter  kind 
came  into  a  home  and  kept  up  its  wailing 
for  several  days.  The  little  six-year  old 
boy  of  the  home  said:  "Mother,  did  you 
say  little  brother  came  from  heaven  ?" 
"Yes,  dear;  why  do  you  ask?" 
"Well,  no  wonder  the  angels  bounced 
him,"  the  boy  replied. 

I  know  a  woman  who  is  forever  telling 
her  trials.  If  you  do  not  listen  to  her  sto- 
ry you  must  read  it  on  her  countenance. 
Nearby  is  another  who  has  lost  her  pa- 
rents; indeed  all  her  near  relatives  are 
gone ;  not  a  flower  left  to  bloom  on  the  des- 
ert of  old  age.  Yet,  she  hides  her  sorrows 
beneath  the  soul's  altar  of  hope  and  meets 
the  world  with  a  smile.  Doubtless  the 
first  woman  wonders  why  she  is  so  slight- 
ed and  the  company  of  the  other  courted. 
She  should  know  it  is  for  the  same  reason 
that  honey-bees  and  humming  birds  light 
on  sweet  flowers  instead  of  dry  mullein 


IF  I  COULD  LIVE  341 

stalks,  and  mocking-birds  and  canaries  are 
caged  instead  of  owls  and  rain-crows. 

Some  persons  seem  to  relish  the  "cold 
soup  of  retrospect"  and  persist  in  picking 
the  "bones  of  regret,"  without  any  appe- 
tite for  the  present  or  promises  of  the  fu- 
ture. Beside  one  of  these  I  would  place  a 
happy-hearted  soul,  who  laughs  through 
the  window  of  the  eye  and  on  whose  face 
you  can  read, 

"Let  those  who  will,  repine  at  fate, 
And  droop  their  heads  in  sorrow, 

I'll  laugh  when  cares  upon  me  wait, 
I  know  they'll  leave  to-morrow. 

"My  purse  is  light,  but  what  of  that? 

My  heart  is  light  to  match  it; 
And  if  I  tear  my  only  coat, 

I'll  laugh  the  while  I  patch  it." 

I  know  a  millionaire,  who  controls  nu- 
merous industries,  whose  wife  must  apply 
cold  cloths  to  his  head  at  night  to  induce 
sleep.  I  know  another  man  not  so  well  off 
in  this  world's  goods,  whose  wife  must  ap- 
ply the  cold  water  to  get  him  awake.  Care 
is  often  pillowed  in  a  palace,  while  con- 
tentment is  asleep  in  a  cottage. 

At  the  close  of  my  lecture  at  a  chautau- 


342         POPULAR  LECTURES. 

qua  several  years  ago,  a  gentleman  said 
to  me:  "Sir,  we  live  in  a  very  humble  cot- 
tage in  this  town,  but  there  is  a  big  wel- 
come over  the  door  for  you  and  we  want 
you  to  take  tea  with  us."  I  accepted  the 
invitation  and  soon  was  seated  on  the 
porch  of  the  small  cottage  home.  While 
my  host  was  inside  getting  a  pitcher  of 
ice  water,  I  looked  across  the  way  and 
there  was  the  home  of  a  railroad  king,  his 
wealth  numbered  by  millions,  and  the 
grounds  surrounding  his  home  were  rich 
in  flower  beds,  fountains  and  forest  trees* 
My  host,  pouring  the  water,  said:  "You 
see  we  are  very  fortunately  situated  here. 
Our  little  home  is  inexpensive  and  our 
taxes  very  light.  Our  rich  neighbor  across 
the  way  employs  three  gardeners  to  care 
for  those  grounds;  he  pays  all  the  taxes, 
has  all  the  care ;  they  do  not  cost  us  a  cent, 
yet  we  sit  here  on  our  little  porch  and 
drink  in  their  beauty."  There  was  a  phi- 
losopher. 

John  Wanamaker  can  pay  $100,000  for 
a  picture,  which  he  did  some  years  ago, 
and  hang  it  on  the  walls  of  his  man- 
sion home,  but  you  go  out  in  the  coun- 
try in  the  springtime,  get  up  in  the 
early  morning  while  the  cattle  are  still 


IF  I  COULD  LIVE  343 

sleeping  in  the  barnyard  and  the  birds  si- 
lent in  the  trees,  watch  the  rich  glow  of 
the  day  god  as  it  comes  peeping  through 
the  windows  of  the  morning,  then  see  the 
birds  leave  their  bowers,  the  larks  to  fly 
away  to  the  fields,  the  mocking-bird  to  sing 
in  the  cedar  at  the  garden  gate,  the  robin 
to  chirp  to  its  mate,  and  you  will  see  a 
picture  which  will  pale  that  of  the  mer- 
chant prince. 

Or  go  out  on  a  summer  evening  just  af- 
ter a  rain  storm,  when  nature  hangs  it- 
self out  to  dry;  when  the  golden  slipper 
of  the  god  of  day  hangs  upon  the  topmost 
bough  of  the  tallest  tree.  You  will  see  a 
picture  no  artist's  brush  can  paint.  And 
God  does  not  hang  these  pictures  on  a  wall 
twenty  feet  by  ten,  but  on  the  blue  tapes- 
try of  the  sky  for  the  world's  poor  to  ad- 
mire "without  money  and  without  price." 
Abraham  Lincoln  well  said:  "God  must 
have  loved  the  common  people,  else  he 
wouldn't  have  made  so  many  of  them." 

Let  me  illustrate  the  two  classes  of  peo- 
ple to  which  I  have  referred.  An  old  man 
who  dwelt  in  the  shadows  of  life  said :  "My 
life  has  been  one  continual  drudgery  and 
disappointment ;  for  fifty  years  I  have  had 
to  get  up  at  5  o'clock  every  morning  while 


344         POPULAR  LECTURES. 

others  enjoyed  their  sleep,  then  all  day  in 
the  harness  of  oppression  I  have  had  to 
work  with  bad  luck  dogging  my  foot- 
steps." 

His  daughter,  thinking  to  cheer  him, 
said,  "Father,  don't  get  discouraged.  You 
have  one  comfort  anyway ;  it  won't  be  long 
till  the  end  of  toil  will  come,  when  you  will 
have  a  good  long  rest  in  the  grave  where 
no  misfortune  can  reach  you." 

"I  don't  know  about  that,"  replied  the 
father;  "it  will  be  about  my  luck  for  the 
next  morning  to  be  resurrection  day  and 
I'll  have  to  be  up  at  daylight  as  usual." 

Another  man,  who  always  looked  on  the 
bright  side  of  life,  and  when  anything 
went  wrong  always  looked  up  something 
good  to  match  it,  happened  to  lose  a  fine 
horse.  When  friends  expressed  sympa- 
thy he  said:  "I  can't  complain;  I  never 
lost  a  horse  before."  Then  his  crop  failed 
and  he  said:  "After  ten  years  of  good 
crops  I  have  no  kick  coming  because  of 
one  failure."  Finally,  poor  fellow,  a  rail- 
road train  ran  over  him  and  both  feet  had 
to  be  amputated  at  the  ankles.  A  friend 
called  to  see  him  and  said:  "Jim,  what 
have  you  to  say  after  this  misfortune?" 


IF  I  COULD  LIVE  345 

His  reply  was :  "Well,  I  always  did  suf- 
fer with  cold  feet." 

Look  on  the  bright  side  of  life,  remem- 
bering that  very  often, 

"The  trouble  that  makes  us  fume  and  fret, 
And  the  burdens  that  make  us  groan  and 

sweat 
Are  the  things  that  haven't  happened  yet." 

When  our  two  boys  were  babies  our 
home  was  a  country  cottage  and  our  land 
possession  one  acre.  Nearby  lived  a  young 
man  whose  father  left  him  a  blue-grass 
farm.  His  home  was  a  handsome  brick 
house;  he  had  servants  and  drove  fine 
horses.  Often  when  seated  on  the  little 
porch  of  our  humble  home,  he  would  pass 
by,  when  the  feet  of  his  horses  and  wheels 
of  his  fine  carriage  would  dash  the  dust 
into  our  faces.  One  evening  when  he 
passed  I  said:  "Never  mind,  Anna,  some 
day  we'll  live  in  a  fine  house,  we'll  have 
servants  and  horses  and  we'll  be  'somebod- 
ies'." I  thought  money  would  bring  hap- 
piness, and  the  more  money  the  more  hap- 
piness. 

We  now  live  in  a  good  home,  have  ser- 
vants and  horse  and  carriage ;  we've  trav- 
eled several  times  together  from  ocean  to 


346         POPULAR  LECTURES. 

ocean,  yet  I  have  never  seen  a  train  of 
Pullman  palace  cars  that  can  compare  in 
memory  with  the  two  trains  that  used  to 
leave  that  little  cottage  home  every  even- 
ing for  dreamland. 

"The  first  train  started  at  seven  p.  m., 

Over  the  dreamland  road, 
The  mother  dear  was  the  engineer, 

The  passenger  laughed  and  crowed. 

The  palace  car  was  the  mother's  arms, 
The  whistle  a  low  sweet  strain ; 

The  passenger  winked,  nodded  and  blinked 
And  fell  asleep  on  the  train. 

The  next  train  started  at  eight  p.  m., 

For  the  slumberland  afar, 
The  summons  clear,  fell  on  the  ear, 

'All  aboard  for  the  sleeping  car/ 

And  what  was  the  fare  to  slumberland? 

I  assure  you  not  very  dear; 
Only  this,  a  hug  and  a  kiss, 

They  were  paid  to  the  engineer." 

And  I  said : 

"Take  charge  of  the  passengers,  Lord,  I 
pray, 

To  me  they  are  very  dear ; 
And  special  ward,  O  gracious  Lord, 

Give  the  faithful  engineer." 


IF  I  COULD  LIVE  347 

Have  some  of  you  had  sorrows  you 
could  not  harmonize  with  the  logic  of  life  ? 
Leave  them  with  Him  who  "notes  the  spar- 
row's fall."  Some  one  has  said:  "There 
are  angels  in  the  quarries  of  life  only  the 
blasts  of  misfortune  and  chisels  of  adver- 
sity can  carve  into  beauty." 

Doctor  Theodore  Cuyler  said:  "God 
washes  the  eyes  of  His  children  with  tears 
that  they  may  better  see  His  providences." 

Doctor  Guthrie  said:  "Because  I  am 
seventy,  my  hair  white  and  crows'  feet 
around  my  eyes,  they  tell  me  I'm  growing 
old.  That's  not  I,  that's  the  house  in 
which  I  live ;  I'm  on  the  inside ;  the  house 
may  go  to  pieces  but  I  shall  live  on  eter- 
nally young." 

"This  body  is  my  house,  it  is  not  I ; 

Herein  I  sojourn,  till  in  some  far  off 

sky, 
I  lease  a  fairer  dwelling,  built  to  last, 

Till  all  the  carpentry  of  time  is  past. 

"When  from  heaven  high,  I  view  this  lone 

star, 

What  need  I  care  where  these  poor  tim- 
bers are ; 


348         POPULAR  LECTURES. 

What  if  these  crumbling  walls  do  go  back 

to  dust  and  loam, 

I  will  have  exchanged  them  for  a  broad- 
er better  home. 

JThis  body  is  my  house,  it  is  not  I ; 
Triumphant  in  this  faith,  I  shall  live  and 
die." 

Since  I  cannot  live  life  over,  since  the 
gate  at  the  end  of  life's  journey  swings 
but  one  way,  and  of  all  the  millions  who 
have  passed  through,  not  one  but  the  Cru- 
cified Son  of  God  has  returned,  why  should 
I  select  such  a  subject  for  a  lecture?  When 
one  is  on  a  journey  he  has  never  made  be- 
fore it  is  well  to  consult  one  who  has  trav- 
eled the  road  and  from  him  learn  the 
things  best  to  be  done,  and  the  places  to 
shun. 

For  more  than  three-score  years  and 
ten  I  have  been  making  life's  journey,  and 
for  more  than  forty  years  have  been  min- 
gling with  the  masses  and  meeting  with 
varied  experiences.  To  those  who  are 
climbing  the  hill  toward  the  noon  of  the 
journey  my  advice  should  be  of  value. 

With  those  who  with  me  are  facing  the 
sinking  sun,  and  the  lengthening  shadows 
falling  behind,  I  thank  God  for  that  faith 


IF  I  COULD  LIVE  349 

which  comes  from  a  diviner  source  than 
human  science,  that  tells  us, 

"There's  a  place,  called  the  Land  of  Begin- 
ning1 Again, 
Where  all  our  mistakes    and    all    our 

heartaches, 
And  all  our  griefs  and  pain, 

Will  be  left  in  the  boat,  like  a  shabby 

old  coat, 
And  never  put  on  again. 

"I'm  glad  there's  a  place  for  the  redeemed 

of  the  race, 

In  the  Land  of  Beginning  Again, 
Where  there'll  be  no  sighing,  there'll  be 

no  dying, 

And  where  sorrows  that  seemed  so  sore, 
Will  vanish  away  like  the  night  into  day, 
And  never  come  back  any  more." 

It  is  'said  "if  wishes  were  horses,  beg- 
gars would  ride."  It  is  useless  for  me  to 
wish  to  live  life  over  or  expect  an  exten- 
sion of  many  more  years  of  borrowed 
time,  but  I  hope  yet  that  along  the  short- 
ening path  I  may  open  up  here  and  there 
a  spring  that  will  refresh  some  thirsty  soul 
and  plant  a  flower  that  will  brighten  the 
path  of  some  weary  one. 


350         POPULAR  LECTURES. 

It  is  my  desire  that  I  may  close  the  life 
I  cannot  live  over  in  the  city  where  it  be- 
gan, surrounded  by  loved  ones  in  whose 
lives  I  have  lived.  I  can  think  of  no  more 
fitting  close  to  this  lecture  than  to  use  a 
thought  borrowed  from  another,  in  paying 
a  tribute  to  my  old  Kentucky  home : 

On  her  blue-grass  bed  in  youth 
I  rolled  and  romped  and  rested; 

At  the  altars  of  her  church 
I  learned  in  whom  I  trusted. 

Tis  here  my  honored  parents  sleep, 
A  dear  sweet  babe  reposes, 

And  o'er  my  darling  daughter's  grave 
Blossom  the  summer  rotees. 

'Tis  here  my  marriage  vows   were 

given, 

'Tis  here  my  children  found  me ; 
My  heart  is  here,  and  here  may  heav- 
en 
Fold  angel  wings  around  me. 

May  sacred  memories  hold  me  here, 
And  when  life's  dream  closes, 

May  I  the  plaudit  "well  done"  wear, 
Then  sleep  beneath  her  roses. 


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